In Another's Shoes
by Laces Kai
Summary: With Halloween comes a rising source challenging the charmed children in unexpected ways. Facing high school, broken hearts, ancient demons, time travel, prophecies, new powers and each other . Anything could happen. Sequel to It Takes a Village.
1. Prologue

**In Another's Shoes **

_Sequel to It Takes a Village _

**PROLOGUE**

_October 31, 2023_

The heavy metal clinked loudly as the bloody wrist struggled to free itself yet again. But the struggle was futile and had been for hours as somewhere in the distant darkness a clock struck a quarter before midnight. A soft sobbing erupted from the limp fragile body of a young woman in chains next to a struggling Dervin.

"Damn it, Halliwells! Come on!" Dervin knocked his head back into the rock holding him prisoner as he glared at the rock ceiling with begging eyes. Fighting against his chains he tried to comfort the crying girl without success.

"Don't worry, they'll come. They always come." Dervin soothed.

"How do you know?" The girl sobbed at him, her dark red curls falling over her delicate face.

"Let's just say, I've been here before. They've done some remodeling since the last time." Dervin tried to keep his voice jovial and light as his green eyes darkly surveyed the ancient throne room. Candles burned everywhere but the room remained dark and ominous. Cloaked figures stood shoulder to shoulder in two straight lines, the guard for the descending great power. A cold shiver shook Dervin as his green eyes caught sight of a sinister looking bald man in a red cloak with scarred hands. The bald man had his back to the prisoners and his head was bent slightly as he appeared to be studying a dark book resting on a podium in front of him.

"We must perform the human sacrifice before the ceremony." The bald man commanded the sea of dark shrouds. Four figures stepped out of the ranks and walked towards Dervin and the crying girl. With brute strength and ceremonious manner the faceless robes carried a struggling Dervin and a limp crying girl to a stone table were their shackles were replaced. In a quickness hidden by darkness the life left the two bodies and blood trickled off the edges of the stone as the clock began to strike the midnight hour. The dark priest muttered an offering to spirits of evil as the ritualistic chanting began. A couple of cloaked figures entered the chamber; both cloaks strutting down the guarded path to their dark destiny. With each clock chime, a step was taken so that by the end of the striking hour the couple was standing directly in front of the bald man with the scarred hands and the black book.

"May the world's evil flow through your soul tonight and grant you eternal dark. Are you prepared to take the power and position of the Source before these leaders of the underworld?" The dark priest held his palms up towards the couple standing before him.

"Yes." Nemod's voice shook the throne room.

"Let you drink the blood of your enemies and may you defeat them," The dark priest conjured a cast iron chalice by snapping his fingers and held out the offering to taller hooded figure. Nemod received the chalice and as he tipped the glass up his hood fell revealing his once handsome face, a scar now running across his right cheek. Leaving a drop, he turned to his companion and held out his offering. Two dainty pale hands received the chalice and in the same movement that had revealed the new source her hood fell to her shoulders and a gasp escaped a surprised young man.

* * *

_Author's Note: I know this took longer than everyone anticapated (even myself) but it is here now! And I promise the plot problems are going to be worth the wait, because this story is going to twist and turn all over the place. I am going to be posting the new first chapter on Wednesday afternoon, and the second chapter by Friday... so anticapate. Please note that some of the new chapters will have parts from the old chapters but thus far I have worked some old important parts into the new chapters. REMEMBER if you want to know when chapters are going up, how the writing process is going, what the next chapter is titles, or such things follow me on twitter - Laces716. _

_Thanks readers, let me know what you think of the new stuff!  
_


	2. Call on Me, Brother

**Call On Me, Brother**

_Lean on Me: Hope for Haiti Now Album_

**March 2010**

Wyatt stood nervously twitching with his small hand clutching the banister pole so tightly his knuckles were turning a pink color. The front door of the manor was wide open and if Wyatt strained his ears enough he could hear the soft angry voice of his mother and then the car starting. In an impulse of self-preservation that would serve him much better in later life than it did at the age of six, Wyatt Halliwell orbed into the nearest hiding spot. The little boy reformed inside the hallway closet.

"Wyatt?" His father's stern voice sounded loud even through the closet door. Wyatt held his breathe and squeezed his eyes shut, hoping not to be discovered.

"Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, I want to speak to you now." Leo's voice sounded much louder. Wyatt opened one eye and noticed the shadow cast in the door crack and debated his escape options for a few seconds too long. Leo had opened the door and grabbed his son forcefully by the hand, pulling out the guilty boy.

"He's not going to die?" Wyatt blurted out before Leo could start parenting. Caught completely off guard by the child's fear, Leo let go of Wyatt's hand.

"No. No, of course not buddy." Leo got down on his knees to be at eye level with his oldest son. Wyatt searched his father's face and after a moment was satisfied that he wasn't being lied to and preceded with his questioning.

"Mom was mad." Wyatt swallowed.

"Wyatt why did you tell your little brother to climb that tree? I told you yesterday that tree was dangerous." Leo had his hands around the little boy's shoulders.

"He was bugging me and my friends." Wyatt explained. "I told him if he could climb the tree that he could hang out with us."

"You knew he could get hurt and you told him to do it anyway?" Leo's tone was disappointed.

"I didn't think he would," Wyatt tired to lie but his fidgeting gave him away.

"Wyatt, what have we told you about lying?" Leo asked sternly.

"Chris lies all the time." Wyatt argued shoving his hands into his pockets.

"And he spends most of his time in his room. But we're not talking about your brother. We're talking about you. I asked you to watch him and you deliberately told him to do something dangerous." Leo looked Wyatt straight in the eye.

"He was being annoying." Wyatt whined.

"You're the older brother Wyatt. I asked you to be responsible and take care of your younger brother. Do you think Mommy would ever let something happen to aunt Paige or aunt Phoebe?" Leo asked.

"No." Wyatt frowned.

"You have to learn to take care of your brother and Melinda. I want to trust you buddy, when I tell you to do something. Today you let your little brother get hurt, and you lied to me and you hid in the closet because you knew you had done something wrong." Leo shook his head.

"I didn't think he would get hurt so bad." Wyatt sighed.

"I know buddy but what worries me is you wanted him to get a little hurt," Leo sighed knowing he was right from the guilt written on his 6-year-old's face. "Maybe you can think about why that was wrong in your room for the afternoon."

**October 1, 2023 **

Gentle waves crashed onto the warm sand of the beach, the cold salt water threatening passing joggers and early sunbathers. The low city buildings of downtown San Diego gleamed in the high noon sun. UC San Diego was still quietly slumbering as the Sunday afternoon bells rang unheard by most of the students. Young people on campus were rarely concerned with time, especially in the mornings, unless it was exam week. Near a coffee cart at one of the small metallic tables sat Wyatt Halliwell.

Sunglasses affixed over his eyes as he coolly sipped on his iced beverage through a straw. A book lay underneath his forearm and a highlighter was poised in his right hand as he attempted to keep reading, fighting his own grogginess and trying to take advantage of the peaceful atmosphere. A skateboarder strolled by the table almost colliding into a kissing couple on the sidewalk, distracting him easily enough. Wyatt stared blankly at the back of the skateboarder, his fingers desperately tapping against the table. The twice-blessed witch looked stunningly normal surrounded by the quiet academia. He had lost some of his childish facial features and had trimmed his wild curls opting for a cleaner Boy Scout look, as Patience often mocked. Living near a beach most of the last year had made the man darker, a glowing bronze. Aside from helping him tan, San Diego had changed Wyatt's style of casual plaids that resembled his father to surfer attire. It would be easy to mistake Wyatt for a laid back surfer, just waiting for the next great wave. But upon closer examination, it would be simple to note that the clothing, the sunglasses, and even the tan were just hiding an uptight personality.

Something was bothering the young Halliwell. Wyatt was more tense than usual, his shoulders were scrunched up to his neck and the only reason he was awake before two was because he hadn't been able to sleep. Dark circles cast shadows under his sunglasses and a worry line was forming on his forehead where it creased in frowns. Dreams were tormenting his slumber, dreams of dark passages and underworld caves. Images of shadows that suspiciously reminded him of his reckless little brother and dark fears of failing were plaguing the oldest charmed child. Wyatt didn't often feel like he wouldn't live up to his responsibilities, to his destiny but lately there had been a nagging resentment manifesting in his sleep. Lack of shut-eye also made the young man jumpy and irritable as he glanced down at his cell phone again, hoping and willing it to ring.

A gray boot kicked the empty chair at the table out, slamming a collection of books on the metal surface brought Wyatt's attention to the person who was joining him.

"You could have spilled my coffee." Wyatt sighed looking up at the woman.

"Well freshmen don't need coffee." She shrugged.

"Bianca, I'm a sophomore now." Wyatt sipped at his coffee defiantly.

"You still twice blessed?" She whispered as she sat down in front of him. She flipped her hair over her shoulder flirtatiously as she made herself comfortable.

"You still teetering on a blurred line of good and evil?" Wyatt asked as he turned the page of the textbook in front of him leaving behind his anxieties. Other people had always helped focus the blond young man, being the protector of such a large brew of cousins had kept him from self-doubt for most of his life.

"The world isn't as black and white as you Halliwells pretend it is." Bianca laughed.

"You tried to kill my little brother." Wyatt shook his head. He took a deep breath releasing the tension in his shoulders, suddenly at ease with the sarcastic banter that was so familiar.

"But I didn't and you forgave me last year, so stop acting like you haven't. Do you want me to help with your paper or not?" She demanded now, her voice warning Wyatt she was getting aggravated.

Wyatt pushed up his sunglasses, glaring at the young woman sitting in front of him. Bianca De La Guarda was a graduate student at the University of California, San Diego. The two had run into each other during the spring semester of Wyatt's freshmen year, in the library during midterms week. It had been a tensioned reunion until it was discovered that Bianca was not undercover to attack Wyatt. It turned out that the phoenix witch was looking for a way to escape her dark employers. She was a PhD student in Cognitive Science at the University and assured Wyatt she would stay out of his way, until this semester.

On the first day of his first sophomore semester, Wyatt walked into a Philosophy of Plato class only to discover that Bianca was one of the teacher's assistants. They had declared a type of truce with each other that was slowly developing into a type of friendship though it was against both young adults' better judgment. Bianca was a recently turned blond with caramel skin that maintained its color wonderfully in Southern California sun. She reached over for one of the books that Wyatt had stacked in front of him. Her fake nails were ironically painted with flames and Wyatt caught a glimpse of her family birthmark, a tiny flamed bird on her inner wrist that most innocent people would believe to be a tattoo.

"What did you choose to do your paper on?" Bianca asked as she crossed her legs.

"An early dialogue, Charmides." Wyatt sighed. Bianca laughed and Wyatt stared at her deep brown eyes questioning what was so funny.

"You would pick something to do with restraint and self-control, the Twice Blessed feeling out of control lately?" Bianca mocked as she leaned forward. A pedant of a phoenix bird hung over the table slightly off her chest as she leaned forward to whisper.

"Oh shut up, Bianca." Wyatt rolled his blue eyes before settling the sunglasses back into place. He didn't like being stared down by anyone, it reminded him too often of the way his parents would interrogate him.

"It is little brother isn't it? That rebel without a cause cutie that doesn't think before he does things." Bianca's face lit up a bit at her memory of the younger Halliwell.

"You are suppose to help me with this paper," Wyatt prompted pointing down to an empty page of a notebook.

"Have you even told little brother that you spend time with me now?" Bianca asked. Wyatt shook his head.

"It's not by choice and it's none of his business." Wyatt licked his lips uncomfortably.

"Yeah, because you haven't been checking me out during class at all. A ladies man like yourself should have better moves." Bianca snatched up the notebook in front of Wyatt and flipped through the pages of notes.

"Here I thought you were sleeping with your advisor…" Wyatt scuffed. Bianca's eyes flashed up in anger before she pulled a red pen from her jean pocket and started making notes on an outline.

"What would you're mother think if she heard you talking to a woman like that…" Bianca sighed. "Are you relating yourself to the young and handsome boy or to Socrates?"

"I think I wanted to do something parallel to the university society being like the young and handsome boy and the administrators being Socrates." Wyatt answered. "I think my mother would be fine with how I talk to you if it were true, which I suspect it is…"

"Don't talk about what you don't know, Wyatt." Bianca shook her head scratching out a line of information on the page. Wyatt's brow creased, as he was unsure if she was talking about her personal life or something to do with Plato and Socrates.

"Are you boys doing anything about Nemod?" Bianca whispered to him without looking up and barely moving her lips. Wyatt scratched his head trying to recall the name and give it a face. Visions flashed in his memory of the man with the dark curls and the empty eyes that had baited him just a few years back while torturing his family.

"I haven't seen him since that night, when he tried to get me to kill Chris or Dervin." Wyatt shook his head. "Do you know something about it?"

"I'm very good at what I do." Bianca shrugged.

"Kill people you mean?" Wyatt demanded in a hushed but strongly accusing voice.

"Think whatever you want golden boy, but Nemod is bad news for you guys. Are you sure that reckless little bro isn't doing anything about it?" Bianca snuck a glance up to him as she started to scribble down her own notes on a blank page of his notebook. Wyatt got the feeling that she knew something he didn't and it made him start twitching. He pulled out his cell phone and stared at the blank screen, it had been over twenty-four hours since he had heard from his brother, or a complainant from his younger sister or cousins about his brother. Holding his phone in his right hand he flipped through old text messages, reading the last smartass response from Chris that simply told him to go climb a tree. He tugged at his t-shirt with the other hand nervously and Bianca snapped her attention up and pushed the notebook at him again.

"Focus Wyatt, paper to write." She tapped at the page. Watching Wyatt run his hand over his neck, she smiled softly as she snatched his phone away wickedly.

"Why is he telling you to go climb a tree?" She asked being able to read the text before Wyatt retrieved his phone and returned it to his pocket.

"It's his way to tell me that I'm bothering him when he's with his friends." Wyatt grumbled as he highlighted a phrase in one of his textbooks. Bianca studied the young man in front of her, biting her lip to keep from asking him to further explain his brotherly relationship. She stared at his fingers dancing over his pocketed phone that he was worried about his younger brother, more than usual and unwilling to talk about it.

"You will know if there is something wrong with him, and if you can't feel him… you could just locate him magically or technologically." She pulled out her own cell phone and tapped at it.

"What are you talking about?" Wyatt demanded now skimming over the notes she wrote him.

"Well, in case you haven't figured out how to locate him yet with your senses. The kid has GPS on his phone." Bianca winked at Wyatt.

"Why do you want a Cognitive Science Doctorate?" Wyatt suddenly slammed his notebook shut and looked at the witch in front of him intently.

"Why do you want a degree in Classical Studies?" Bianca countered.

"I asked you first." Wyatt cross his arms over his chest and leaned back.

"And I'm prettier than you are." Bianca stuck her tongue out.

"Ladies first," Wyatt argued.

"My study in Cognitive Sciences is actually very helpful to my powers…" Bianca started to explain as the clock tower started chiming, signaling half past noon all the way up the west coast.

The old grandfather clock chimes murmured underneath the loud familial gurgle of the manor. Though Halliwell family brunch had long since been devoured, the sisters and their husbands still sat around the dinning room table sipping on coffee and laughing over the week's events. The chatting of the older charmed generation blended with the loud rumbling of the singing blasting from a television in the conservatory where Primrose and Penelope lounged watching together. A friendly bickering layered onto the sounds from Patricia and Melinda that were playing some sort of board game in the living room. Pandora sat on the top of the main staircase, observing the interactions while pretending to focus on sewing up a new t-shirt. Dora tapped her bare feet onto the carpeted stair, overtly focusing her brown eyes on her twitching fingers. She pretended to sing along to the music streaming from the white ear bud in her right ear, it was a perfect way to mumble spells to provide a noise barrier to her older cousins. Every so often Dora would try to sneak a glance towards the quiet empty halls of the second floor hoping to catch a glimpse at what secretive activities her oldest brother and Patience and Chris were up to but nothing ever seemed to happen.

Above the rest of the family, anxiously rummaging through potion ingredients and thumbing through the Book of Shadows were Patience and Henry.

"Shouldn't we call Wyatt?" Henry demanded for the tenth time since entering the attic.

"And risk Chris killing us?" Patience rolled her eyes, carefully dropping some black pebbles into a swirling substance in a gold chalice.

"I'm more afraid of Wyatt than I am of Chris." Henry muttered under his breath as he held a shaky hand over the substance in his cousin's hand and started chanting quietly in Latin. The substance started to billow a silvery smoke that ran over Patience's pale hands that clasped around the chalice. She smiled brightly, exposing dimples under her soft lavender eyes. The glittering pink cell phone on the table started to vibrate as Henry grabbed the chalice and started pouring the potion into a larger unceremonious looking plastic bucket. Patience tapped a finger onto the touch screen of her phone, reading the message quickly before starting to crush up some yellow leaves.

"Dervin and you broke up again?" Henry asked noticing how her eyes changed colors rapidly to a blood red.

"Has he even told you what this potion is for?" Patience snapped without looking up. Henry sighed recognizing the familial trait of deflection.

"You know how secretive he is, Chris is always worried that we're going to tell Wyatt." Henry shrugged his shoulders. "But as you know this potion is called dry drought, a dry liquid used for a variety of vanquishes and notably is needed to stop the reformation and multiplication of sandstormers."

"You realize that you sound like a textbook? You nerd." Patience puffed out her cheeks, as she spit into the chalice before dumping in her yellow substance.

"Just because I choose to be prepared before fighting demons unlike someone I know…" Henry spat back. He stirred the potion in the chalice carefully before dropping in black pebbles again. The billowing smoke started once again to pour out of the golden chalice as Henry clasped his lean fingers around the item holding it up for Patience.

"I know what I need to know," Patience stuck out her tongue before taking a deep breath. She shot out her hand, fingernails painted purple and started to chant the same Latin incantation that Henry had said only moments before. The two cousins were like a well-oiled machine, reacting and responding to each other like well-trained soldiers fighting the same battle. The two had been making the same potion for the last hour, instructed to do so by Chris. The dry drought could only be made in small portions, one golden chalice at a time. Chris had instructed his cousins that they were to fill a bucket. The same bucket that now swished on the ground with silvery potion.

"Are you worried about him?" Patience asked after pouring a new dose into the bucket.

"Who, Chris?" Henry asked. Patience nodded as she measured out new ingredients yet again.

"You sense something to be worried about?" Henry asked, carefully watching her face for subtle strains that might give him truths if she lied. Henry Jr. allowed himself to be guided by his whitelighter side much more than his older cousins and because of this, he was much more confident in his family members powers than in his own. Patience had started to develop a power that Chris and Henry had realized had be a type of empathy.

"He's hiding things, more than usual. And he's always so tense, I can feel his frustration and exhaustion. Have you noticed the dark circles that appear to be painted on his face…?" Patience's eyes were closed as she channeled her power, her recognition to notice the physical stress and emotional cues usually missed by others without the heightened sense.

"He's calling." Henry hurried to stir the last batch of the potion as Patience's phone started ringing.

"It's Wyatt." She bit her lower lip, giving Henry a questioning glance.

"I told you we should call him. Now we don't have time." He shook his head. HJ pushed out his chin, lifting the bucket magically with great care not to spill any of the contents. Patience flicked her hand at the phone, magically silencing it before clutching her arm tightly around Henry's shoulders. The two disappeared into a swirl of bright lights, leaving evidence of their potion making blatantly behind.

Far away from the manor, far away from the protective embraces of the family, somewhere in the unpopulated long lost and forgotten city of an ancient society was the most troubled member of the cousins. Crouching under a sacrificial altar with his left hand clutching the stone above his head to keep his balance and his right hand resting on his knee was Chris Halliwell. His green eyes blazed with annoyance rather than fear over his current predicament. As he concentrated on hearing any movement in the dangerously quiet room, his cell phone buzzed loudly in his jean pocket. The sudden sound caused the young man to jump and hit his head against the altar. The noise awoke his surroundings. The dirt swished and swirled off the ground to materialize four demons.

Multitasking, Chris jumped to his feet fearlessly to face the demons while pulling out his ringing cell phone. Pressing the little silver square to his ear he began a conversation while trying to spark enough electric blast from his fingers to conquer his attackers. Waving his left hand at two of the three demons, the sand creatures burst upon impacting the old granite walls of the room.

"Hey bro." Chris gritted his teeth together as he ducked to avoid a blast of sand that sailed above his head. He danced around the last demon, not noticing the reforming figures to his left.

"Chris, are you all right? I felt…" Wyatt didn't even bother finishing his sentence. The oldest Halliwell recognize the sounds of a fight even as Chris tried to distract him. The ground shook underneath Chris in a fury, as the two collapsed sand creatures reformed into four demons. Muttering under his breath a string of curses at his own stupidity before responding to Wyatt.

"Totally fine Wy. I'll call in a few minutes?" Chris dropped his phone onto the ground now needing both of his hands. The five sand demons had surrounded the younger Halliwell brother into the middle of the room. Chris knew that he was being pushed back against the altar, where he might soon find himself tied. A strong wind blew unnaturally in the underground room causing the sand to dance around the demons. Chris started coughing with every attempt to breathe the young man was only inhaling sand. He was now leaning right up against the altar, using the ancient magical stone to keep himself standing. Trying to focus his watering eyes, the witch tried to blast at the sand demons once again.

"ENOUGH!" A powerful voice rang just as Chris fell to his knees unable to catch his breath. A magical wave shook the air and suddenly everything was calm again. A white hand covered in smudges of ink shot out in front of Chris' nose. The kneeling coughing young man reluctantly took the help. He didn't look up to meet his older brother's piercing blue disapproving eyes. Instead Chris focused on the ground looking for his buried cell phone.

"Chris?" Wyatt's voice resembled the disappointed tone that Leo so often used with both his sons.

"I lost my phone." Chris grumbled still not looking up. He shifted sand with his shoe not desiring to get any closer to the very substance that had almost choked him only moments before.

"Well fighting demons and talking on your cell phone is like driving and talking on your cell phone. Only bad things can happen. If only there was some way that you could just call out for help without needing to use your cell phone," Wyatt started tapping his chin. Chris didn't need to be looking at the handsome face of Wyatt Halliwell to imagine the sarcastic scowl his mouth would be set in. Crawling around on his knees, he began to actively comb through the sand for his phone if only to avoid looking at Wyatt.

"OH! Wait, there is! But you're an incredibly reckless witch lighter who refuses to call for your brother whenever you're in trouble!" Wyatt shouted at his hunched over little brother. Chris rolled his eyes, this was not the first time he had heard this exact line. Granted at this point there were very few lectures that Christopher Halliwell hadn't heard. Since stepping out of the protective shadow of his older brother, it seemed that the sixteen years of never being blamed was catching up to the young man.

"Wyatt, I was doing just…" Chris started to grumble. The sand popped around Wyatt's feet, a reaction to the older boy's building anger.

"Don't say you were just fine! Don't do it." Wyatt reached out to force his brother to finally look at him when the sand started shooting up around them again.

"You didn't tell me they reform!" Wyatt stammered as he watched not five demons but ten materialize.

"Oh, also they multiply." Chris added throwing himself completely onto the ground and attempting to take the demons out before they completely rematerialized.

"I'm going to kill you myself when we get rid of these guys." Wyatt threatened as he blocked the building sandstorm hurtling towards him with a thin force field.

"Any ideas on how exactly we're going to get rid of these guys?" Chris shouted as he rolled around at the feet of the demons.

"Henry! Where are you?" Chris added desperately at the air.

"I hate you!" Wyatt responded back. As the twice blessed blasted the three demons that were attacking him back into piles of dust. Chris chuckled before starting to cough again as he blasted two demons against each other. Shining lights came swirling down onto the altar, Patience and Henry appeared.

"About time!" Chris glared at the two cousins behind him.

Patience Halliwell and Henry Jr. Mitchell had changed much more than their two older counterparts. Young Henry had stretched out to be taller than his female cousin but still slightly shorter than the Halliwell brothers. He had allowed his hair to grow out to the disapproval of his father, so now his dark brown hair hung right above his ears in a mixture of curling and straight tangles. His confidence had also increased ten-fold since his training had begun under Chris just last year. Though he was still pushed to practice his Wiccan abilities, it was understood that young Henry would be at the present time the cousins' resident whitelighter, as his constant need to heal Chris was proving.

Patience Halliwell had lost some of the roundness of her cheeks and brightness of her eyes. She had chopped her hair completely off one day in a rage; the girl had grabbed a pair of scissors and cut at the point where the hair tie bunched up her ponytail. Patience had become a powerful cupid, making her a volatility powerful witch. As her emotions controlled her Wiccan powers, the teenager was completely distracted by her love life. The two teenagers nestled a bucket in-between them. Patience's arms shook as she stooped to release the bucket to free her hand to freeze the reforming demons in the room.

"I hate you." Patience snapped at Chris. Her eyes burned with flecks of red that made her seething annoyance much clearer. Twirling her index finger around, her dark hair that barely hit her shoulders magically lifted itself up into a short ponytail.

"There's a club of Chris Haters, I'm currently president." Wyatt laughed before he added in a parental tone. "You shouldn't be using magic like that."

Patience rolled her eyes, shrugged and expertly avoided the angry glare coming from Chris. Henry meanwhile was focusing his attention solely on the bucket, taking a deep breathe before he tilted his chin up and the bucket shot high up into the air.

"What's in the bucket?" Wyatt demanded walking towards the altar. A silvery white liquid escaped out of the bucket as it circled around the ancient room. Patience jumped down, in a slow motion from the altar, using her levitation power that had advance greatly since she had gained it two years ago. Wyatt gave her a critical look again but kept his lecture to himself this time. Henry meanwhile stayed positioned in the center of the altar, squinting his eyes in pure concentration of the object he was holding in the air magically.

"It's a dry liquid potion, the only magical defense against the reformation and multiplication of sandstormers." Henry recited the answer as if answering a teacher. One of Wyatt's eyebrows shot up at the response as he gave Chris a questioning look. Chris shrugged mouthing the words, _magic school fanatic. _

"Anyway," Patience said ignoring the brothers' exchange. "The potion works well but it would be stronger if we say a spell. I didn't write one, because you know that potion was pretty time consuming and we had to remain unsuspicious at brunch, so we couldn't skip it." Patience sighed.

"The texting wasn't time consuming though," Henry rolled his eyes.

"Did you break up with Dervin? Again?" Wyatt shook his head. The charmed boys were highly sensitive to Patience's relationship with Dervin. Due to her nature as a daughter of Phoebe, a half cupid and a charmed witch the state of her relationships affected almost everything about her. The boys understood the constant texts and giddy laughter, as Chris joked they spoke girl.

"Well if he wants to go to Boston, fine. Go. I can stay here and just…" Patience started grumbling.

"You know, this is you're fault. Why can't you just practice a little more patience?" Wyatt demanded of his younger brother.

Chris shook with a fierce anger that caused the hair of everyone in the room to stand up with static energy.

"We will deal with this in a second." Wyatt grumbled. "Let's just say a power of three spell? Pat will say it with us while HJ concentrates on the potion?"

"Yeah." Henry said through gritted teeth. The use of his magic was starting to take a toll on the young man.

"Can we find my phone before we make it rain potion in here?" Chris asked as his green eyes moved over the mounds of sand beneath their feet.

"Really?" Wyatt's eyebrows popped up in disapproval yet again. Patience though had pulled out her own phone, punched at number 3 and waited to hear the familiar ring tone hollering "and it's out of the PARK!"

Chris swished his hand out in front of him and beckoned the phone back into his fingers. Before Wyatt could start in on his younger brother's reckless use of magic, the room shook with movement. The sandstormer demons awoke from their frozen slumber with a vengeance. Suddenly there was no more sand on the ground, as every tiny pebble flew around the room materializing into over a dozen demons around the four charmed cousins. Patience was unprepared for the furry of the sand as she inhaled the blasting sand and started choking. Henry had pressed his eyes closed but was having a harder time holding the bucket steady. Wyatt and Chris had been prepared for the moment. While Wyatt shot a protective shield around Patience, Chris ducked back down under the altar.

"THE SPELL!" Wyatt shouted above the hurtling sounds of the wind and sand twisting around them.

"The power of three will set us free." Chris started chanting.

"The power of three will set us free." Wyatt joined in on the second try of the spell. The boys said it together a few times before Patience's voice finally came back to her.

"The power of three will set us free." When Henry heard the three voices he dropped his chin and the potion came showering down on the sand demons in the room. The silver liquid splashed around onto the demons, making the creatures of sand steam out of existence and back into just regular sand. Henry jumped down off the altar and stood next to Patience, who was still trying to catch her breath.

"Now would you care to explain to me what the hell is going on?" Wyatt crossed his arms over his chest, his broad shoulders expanding with the movement to make him look bigger and more commanding.

"Currently, we're enjoying a Sunday afternoon in a ancient tourist trap." Chris winked at Wyatt. Chris ran his hand through his unruly long hair.

Wyatt squinted his blue eyes dangerously at his younger brother. Henry took a nervous step towards Patience, who was bouncing on the balls of her feet nervously.

"Love to stay," Patience smiled at the older boys as she slipped her hand into Henry's bent elbow.

"But we left a mess, trail of evidence." Henry nodded pleased with his exit excuse.

"And we've been avoiding this particular fight for days." Patience cracked a smile as she nodded at Henry. The younger cousins orbed out of the ancient room before Wyatt or Chris could protest.

"You're doing just great with them." Wyatt rolled his eyes as his sarcastic words tumbled out. "Flagrant disregard for personal gain rules about magic. And don't even get me started on you, are you even attending your classes anymore?" Wyatt crossed his arms over his dusty blue shirt.

"Don't you have any friends? Shouldn't you be sleeping off a hangover somewhere in a messy dorm room?" Chris half-heartedly mocked and urged at the same time. Wyatt gritted his teeth and moved quickly over to his younger brother, standing over him menacingly.

"You have been hiding things from me. Have you forgotten who the older brother is? I protect you, I worry about you having a normal college experience."

"We made a deal." Chris argued back, not backing down.

"Never did we agree to you doing stupid things by yourself. I did not tell you to climb this tree." Wyatt growled.

"Dad didn't mean you had to protect me forever Wyatt. Contrary to popular belief, I can miraculous take care of myself." Chris shoved his hands deep into his pockets.

"Dad did mean I had to protect you forever, little brother. That's what it means to be the little brother, and you know it. It has nothing to do with what you can and can't do." Wyatt heaved a deep sigh. The two brothers stood there in a tension silence, glaring at each other. Each young man was as stubborn as the other, and neither wanted to admit to a fault. For Wyatt, it was his overprotective nature that resembled the neurotic tendencies of his mother that was his largest fault when it came down to the younger Halliwell. For Chris, it was his intent and reckless chase of demons that was a reaction to his inferiority complex that acted as his largest fault to not only himself but also the entire Halliwell clan.

An alarm went off and the high pitch ringer broke the spell between the blue and green irises. Chris cracked a smug smile, a sign of his victory because the alarm was coming from Wyatt's back pocket. Wyatt clicked his tongue in annoyance, a gesture he had picked up from Piper years ago.

"Have to go somewhere?" Chris mocked.

"We are not done with this conversation Christopher, and if you don't tell me, what the hell is going on I will…" Wyatt didn't finish the last word.

"Tell mom, yeah. Yeah." Chris finished

"Mom is going to start missing you too, shouldn't you head back?" Wyatt taunted staring down at his screen.

"On three then?" Chris nodded.

"One," Wyatt stated.

"Two," Chris laughed.

"Three…" A swirling bunch of lights consumed the room. When everything settled once again though, Chris reformed alone. He ran his hand through his hair nervously as he took a deep breath and looked around the room.

"Same stupid threat for nineteen years, you would think that he might come up with something new." Chris grumbled starring around the room once again.

"Almost dying. Better be right." Chris sighed walking over to a path of sand that looked damp with potion still. For whatever degree of reckless abandon Christopher Halliwell might have, he always had a plan. He had come into this ancient altar room, on the far side of the world with a purpose. Stooping down, in a quick flick of the wrist Chris filled a tiny vial with the sandy remains of the vanquished demons. In a decisive manner, he moved on to his next task. Walking towards the stone altar, Chris pulled out a glittering knife from his back pocket. Using his right hand to clutch to the fancy dagger, he stood mesmerized by the etchings on the stone tablet. The design of the altar was a nine-point star, deeply craved into the stone and embellished with bright gemstones. A ball of mist appeared right over the middle of the altar, growing slowly at first and then instantly becoming concrete.

"Remember you must take from each point and offer sacrifice for it." A young woman said in a light whisper. Her body lay across the altar, with her head only slightly lifted onto her arm as she stared at Chris with her golden eyes.

"What are you doing here?" Chris growled as his face creased into a frown.

"I foresaw you running late again, your father would not be pleased. So I thought I would help you." The girl snapped her fingers behind her ear producing a small pocketknife. Holding up her legs and leaning her torso slightly forward, the young woman spun herself around expertly to be sitting on the edge of the altar. She held her arms out to Chris expectantly.

"You couldn't have foreseen my almost dying with the stupid sandstormers?" Chris sighed as he helped her down.

"The prophecy which lead you here did warn that dangers were ever present." She gave him a resentful glare before punctured her own finger. A little drop of blood glittered before splashing onto the altar. A glint off the precious stone was the signaled permission she awaited. She pushed her knife underneath a golden point with a colored gemstone.

"Verity, can't you be a little more witch and a little less oracle once in a while?" Chris grumbled as he poked his own finger with a knife and started to pick at one of the points of the design on the altar.

"Well that would defeat the purpose of being a half-breed wouldn't it?" She stuck her tongue out at him. "That would be like asking you to be a little less charmed and a little more boyfriend."

Chris smiled and winked at her, though he didn't move to embrace her instead focusing his attention on the task in front of him. Verity Vanguard was a one of kind magical breed with a father that was a witch and a mother that had been one of Apollo's oracles at Delphi. She was a product of a strange and unheard of romantic relationship. Verity's mother was the only oracle to have carried a baby to full term during the time of the ancient Greeks. Fearing for her daughter's safety and for the safety of the man she loved, the oracle had sought another powerful witch to freeze her loved ones in time until a moment when they would be safer. The spell that held them frozen had been broken fifty years earlier when the ancient oracle had died. Adrastos, Verity's father had passed away only a few years back but not before he insisted the young half oracle find purpose in her powerful and practically immortal existence. Verity had started working at Magic School just months ago, after Leo had discovered her working as a parlor trick for a local bay area hotel.

The young woman had the body of a ballet dancer with a thin torso, strong calves and pointed facial features. She had supernatural golden eyes that regular mortals saw as a pale hazel. Her hair started as fair golden blond at the roots and grew into a dark almost onyx black at the tips, making it look dyed when in reality it was the strange combination of her father and mother's blood. She was magnificently beautiful, artfully charming and almost irresistible.

"When will you tell your family?" Verity asked carefully as she squeezed her finger for another drop of blood.

"V, I've told you. We're taking it slow. Mom and Wyatt aren't big fans of Oracles and Seers you know." Chris said without looking at her.

"Your father suspects." She commented off handedly.

"Yeah well, dad's a bit more observant than mom and Wy." Chris shrugged. "Besides dad will let me tell him before he says anything, he's all about trust."

"You no longer trust your father as you once did." Verity said with immovable certainty.

"That's not exactly it. I just," Chris didn't finish his thought. The air in-between the two powerful half bloods was left unresolved. Verity understood the underlying feelings that Chris was trying to not express. The young oracle witch had been attracted to Chris because of his overwhelming psychic aura. She had felt his true self and the alternate self from a previous future that seemed to have an invisible hand in shaping him. Finally after some silence, Chris and Verity were standing side by side pulling out the last of the precious gems. Chris turned and poured his collected stones into Verity's open palm.

"We still have many pieces to collect." Verity sighed.

"I know." Chris nodded.

"Maybe you should inform your family? At least Wyatt?" She ventured. Chris frowned and shook his head.

"No, we're not telling Wy until it's absolutely necessary. Wyatt gets normal." Chris said through gritted teeth.

"You know that the Twice Blessed is not normal?" She smiled as she hid the precious gems in a pouch hanging around her neck.

"Don't call him that." Chris rolled his eyes. He leaned down and kissed Verity softly, his hand pushing a dark strand and a light strand of her hair off her cheek.

"You'll be busy for the remainder of the day." She said sadly knowing the information to be true, as she had just sensed it.

"I have to get back," Chris sighed leaning down on her forehead for only a second before disappearing into bright lights.

* * *

_Author's Note: As you might have noticed, there is song information under the title of the chapter. Actually I've been naming the chapter after songs that I think fit what is happening a habit that I slightly picked up from Destined. The idea that a WB show introduced you to new, upcoming music types. So enjoy that! In other news, the next chapter will be up on Friday afternoon... as we get closer to that I will have an idea on how the rewrite of chapter 3 is coming along and if I will have a whole new chapter up by next week. Again remember to let me know what you think and I'm SO sorry for all the delays! _


	3. These Kids They Grow So Fast

**These Kids They Grow So Fast **

_Tie My Hands, Lil' Wayne _

_**February 2013 **_

Little sneakers squeaked against the chalk-covered sidewalk. High-pitched chanting rose from girls in pigtails singing rhymes as they jumped over ropes. Pockets of first, second and third graders wandered the playground tending to their own imaginations.

Pandora Mitchell was swinging along on the faded red monkey bars trying to pull her little body up above the bars, to get away from a group of teasing boys. The girl looked around nervously for help from one of her many cousins. Just a rock throw away was the other Mitchell twin, in a matching white skirt and purple shirt Patricia Mitchell had her back turned to the distress of her sister. Patricia was busy counting the number of times a jump rope hit the ground, timing her run and jump into the swinging rope. While Melinda was holding one of the ends of the jump rope dreamingly starring in Pandora's direction at a graceful third grade boy playing soccer. The three first graders were not the only charmed cousins on the playground, or even on the campus. Henry was in the outer fields of the grounds, playing a friendly game of kick ball with his friends completely unaware that one of his younger sisters was being teased. Patience had climbed a tree near the kindergarten yard with Peyton, a boy in her class that was holding her hand. Penelope clung to the kindergarten yard fence starring up at her older sister wishful, confused by the metal dividing her from her cousins and life long playmates. On the other side of the school, sitting distracted and disengaged was Chris Halliwell not listening to the lesson on fractions.

Amid the twenty-minute recess of childhood chaos, a trash can suspiciously near the monkey bars burst into vengeful flames. The three boys that had been relentlessly teasing little Pandora were running away and crying in fear. Melinda dropped her jump rope and quickly snatched a handful of Patricia's purple shirt. Running past the burning flames, close enough to burn the tips of her high ponytail.

"Tricia, the flames." She squeaked. Water without a source shot at the flames, in blinding speed that shot past the growing flames. Melinda shot up her pudgy little hands, her waist length black hair standing up with a static energy. But the fire wasn't extinguished, quite the contrary it seemed to be growing, as a spark caught onto a nearby tree.

"Get down," Patricia hissed in a loud childish whisper to her twin. Pandora blinked and dissolved into lights that showered down near her twin and cousin. The flames danced in front of them, Melinda still trying desperately to contain the fire with her little hands. Patricia and Pandora stood on either side of their darker haired ringleader, holding their hands behind her back and just looking frightened at the growing threat. The three girls were left alone in the center of the sandbox, in front of the fading red monkey bars. Crying children, yelling teachers, and shrieking sirens all seemed silenced as Melinda gave up on the magical solution and pulled her cousins away from the flames, towards the fields. As sirens blasted from the parking lot and firefighters moved onto the scene, Patience and Henry were scurrying towards the younger girls from their corners of the playground. Somewhere from behind the fire, a pair of green eyes searched for signs of magic twitching in fear that his younger cousins would expose themselves.

**October 2, 2023 **

A plastic binder edge was pressing into a rosy cheek of a sleeping Melinda Halliwell. Clutching a pencil that was hidden underneath tangled black hair, Melinda was lost to the world.

_In a disheveled, darker magic school there were demons lining the walls all looking towards the middle of the room. A blonde toddler in a faded blue long sleeved shirt, khaki shorts and black tennis shoes was starring at a shadowed wall. Next to the toddler was a housewife, with honey red hair and fancy clothing that maliciously clung to the little boy that seemed more curious than scared. Moments of shattered vision broke, until a man in black robes and a half burned face sprung out of the wall. _

Melinda snapped up, taking short gasps of air as she clutched at her heart fearing it might pound straight out of her chest. She was not at magic school and there was no scary looking housewife. Instead there were teenagers, crouched down in desks looking up at a pacing older man that held a tattered old book in his hand. Melinda starred at the teacher, watching his mouth move but she couldn't focus on the words quite yet.

"Now can anyone tell me what kind of importance the city of Ephesus had for the Elizabethan audience?" Mr. Huntington asked a class full of high school sophomores. A few hands shot up, a few unfounded answers were given but Melinda knew they were wrong by how Mr. Huntington shook his head.

"Magic." The word broke the silence of Melinda's world. The word that controlled so many aspects of her world, of her very existence, brought her back to the present reality.

"Correct Ms. Mitchell. But would you elaborate?" Mr. Huntington's attention focused to the right corner of the room. Sitting in the front row, seat next to the door Patricia Mitchell twirled her hair nonchalantly.

"The city of Ephesus was known for witchcraft, probably due to the letters from St. Paul that influenced Elizabeth's England. Witches were a great way to explain the unexplainable." Tricia clicked her tongue as she answered.

"True Ms. Mitchell, do you believe in witches?" Mr. Huntington asked amused with the young lady. Melinda's body became rigid as she sat forward and curved her fingers around the edge of her desk. As every set of eyes looked over at Patricia, some bored, some amused, some eager and one set intensely but before an answer escaped her lips the bell sounded. In the blink of an eye, the English sophomore students were rustling out the door. Melinda scrambled to pick up her notebooks and backpack. She glanced up to check if Patricia was still in the room. But the calmer Mitchell twin was stepping out of the room, in a fit of annoyance Melinda snapped her hands up and froze the room. Before realizing her own actions, Melinda snapped her thumb and middle finger together causing her body to fly across the still room to be right next to Patricia as the scene unfroze.

"What are you doing?" Patricia hissed at Melinda's sudden appearance.

"I'm not sure." Melinda sighed confused. The girls stepped into the hallway crowded with students. A muffled voice boomed over the intercom, and lockers slammed loudly and teenagers of all sizes pushed into each other.

"Tricia!" A boy with mousy brown hair that was combed neatly came trotting up to the two girls.

"Bobby." Tricia smiled ignoring the desperate look from Melinda. Bobby smiled at Melinda, but his eyes quickly refocused on Patricia.

"You're going to help collect signatures?" Bobby asked now standing in front of Tricia. Robert Jensen was student body vice president, a junior with a purpose and causes. He dressed like a young republican might, in polo shirts and khaki pants. As an active member of the student body, Bobby was not only on the student council but also on the mock trail team and president of the campus division of young republicans. He always had an activity from a petition to sign to a dance committee to run, and he always needed help.

"Of course I am." Tricia smiled taking his clipboard. She pulled a pen from her tightly wound up bun, her light brown hair not moving out of place.

"We just need to collect about another thirty signatures to be able to change that in our school constitution." Bobby explained leaning down towards the girl and pointing.

"Right, I can't wait until we can start doing real work with the tutoring system this will start." Tricia nodded brightly. Melinda discreetly poked Tricia in the back, trying to gain her cousin's attention again. But Tricia was lost to the world of school politics and her long-standing crush, perfect student activist Bobby,

"We're doing great, you're a natural at this Tricia. You're going to run again for next year? Maybe for the V.P position?" The boy laughed. "I would love you in the V.P spot, you know we could platform together as I want that Presidential parking spot." He smiled.

"That can't be the only reason you want to run for President of ASB Bobby." Tricia giggled. She started walking away from Melinda, who didn't follow. Melinda stood frozen, paling with her eyes closed completely unaware of the emptying hallway.

_A makeshift altar, shorter than usual, was draped with a red cloth. Five candles sat lit on around a sterling silver bowl. The honey red was kneeling in front of the altar next to Wyatt, as a toddler, now looking scared and suspicious as the housewife waved her hand over the bowl. Wyatt stuck his finger into the bowl, a warm light emitted and jumped at the wall. The wall with a pentagram drawn onto it, a fire burned and again the cloaked man jumped into the room. _

"Melinda," Pandora was trying to shake her cousin out of her vision. The hallway had emptied out, except for the two equally tall cousins. Dora had her hazel eyes focused on her cousin's face as she flipped up one of her braided metallic blue pigtails. Dora had gotten louder and more troublesome in her first two years of high school, a feature she outwardly demonstrated by changing her hair color constantly. Paige was convinced that her daughter's hair was going to fall out by the time that girl turned twenty.

"Sorry, I wanted to talk to Tricia but…" Melinda stuttered looking around confused again. She pressed her fingers up to her temples, feeling the surging headache.

"She walked away, because you used magic to get to her. That was a pretty obvious use of powers Mel." Dora frowned looking towards the closed door of the English classroom.

"I don't really know what happened. I'm having this vision…" Melinda bent over in a surge of pain. Dora held her cousin up, biting her lip as she looked around nervously.

"Maybe I should call Chris," Dora asked nervously.

"No." Melinda shook her head. But as Melinda was refusing her cell phone began to ring. Melinda fished through the outer pocket of her backpack, locating the flashing lights quickly.

"It's Wyatt," Dora laughed. Melinda took a deep breath and pressed a finger up to silence her outgoing accomplice to life.

"Hi big brother," She smiled brightly as if Wyatt could see the guilty look on her face.

"Is something wrong with you?" He demanded loudly enough for Dora to stifle a giggle. Melinda lightly smacked Dora before answering her brother.

"No, nothing is wrong. Why would you think that something is wrong?" She tried to sound innocent.

"I felt a surge of power a few minutes ago, and I'm almost sure that it was you. You or Chris, do you happen to know where Christopher might be?" Wyatt asked.

"No, I don't. You know how he gets lost these days. I did have a burst of power, I moved faster than time. I don't know how or why, or what it means but I know it happened." Melinda explained. There was silence for a few moments, Melinda recognizing the plotting pause that was so familiar with her brothers.

"Melinda, is there something you're not telling me now too?" Wyatt finally sighed. Dora shrugged, mouthing the words Chris made him paranoid.

"I have a headache, that might be a migraine can I talk to you later?" Melinda begged.

"Are you with Patience already?" Wyatt asked.

"Yes," Melinda lied. The girls started to walk out towards the parking lot in search of their ride.

"Liar." Wyatt growled a bit. "If you were with Patience you would already be in the car, which you're not. I will let you hang up when you are in the car with Pat, then I want one of you to tell my absurd little brother to call me immediately. If one of you doesn't get him to call me, I will come and check on you people."

Patience was sitting on the hood of her car, the beat up old mustang that had once belonged to Dervin Rogers. Dervin was the on and off again boyfriend of the oldest cupid witch, he was much more on than off over the course of the last three years. As a way to soften Patience up to his leaving for a college in Boston, Dervin had restored some of his car and repainted it a lilac tint. The lilac color was a tribute to Dervin's favorite eye color, as a lilac in Patience meant a calm happiness. But the car had only helped a bit with the long distance, as could be proved by the fact that Patience was chatting up a gangly looking basketball player type. Wyatt had continued to rant and lecture about being lied to and driven to threats by Chris dismissive behavior. Melinda coughed loudly into the phone.

"At the car, I will call you later. Promise, love you Wy." And with that she snapped her phone shut and switched it to silent so she wouldn't have to hear it ring constantly when Wyatt tried to call back.

"Pat, Mels has a migraine can we go?" Pandora asked. Patience's eyes flickered a red as she snapped to look over at her younger cousins.

"It took you two long enough." She snapped. Patience jumped from the hood of the car, specks of dirt stuck to her white sweats as the basketball player helped her down.

"So can I call you sometime?" He was asking as he held open the driver's side door for her. Dora and Melinda ignored the ongoing flirtation and opted to just jump into the old mustang.

"If you don't want neurotic boy to find out, try not to have a vision in front of his right hand." Dora whispered. Melinda was leaning her head against the headrest, closing her eyes.

"Chris trusts me as much as he trusts Patience." Melinda muttered through gritted teeth. Patience finally climbed into the car, started the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot. The old mustang still had hints of Dervin as the smell of his old cologne and a hint of cigarette smoke lingered underneath a vibrant smell of bubble gum and tootsie rolls.

"Did you break up with Dervin again?" Dora asked keeping down her volume to not bother Melinda.

"I don't want to talk about him." Patience snapped annoyed.

"Yeah, until tomorrow when you're back together again." Melinda groaned and squirmed a bit in pain.

"Mels, do you want me to call Chris and have him come and heal you?" Patience asked worriedly.

"I am perfectly capable of…" Melinda started.

"Taking care of myself." Patience and Pandora finished for her.

"You Halliwells are all the same, stubborn know-it-alls that have a inferiority complex with each other." Dora sighed.

"You're a Halliwell too you know, just because aunt Paige actually took uncle Henry's name, doesn't exclude you." Patience snapped again.

"Yeah, but I'm not constantly trying to prove myself." Dora argued.

"Sure you're not Dora, how about just last week when you joined the Halloween dance committee at magic school? That wasn't trying to outdo Patricia?" Patience laughed.

"That had nothing to do with Tricia." Dora grumbled resentfully. There was a strange silence between to three cousins, because it was rare that three Halliwell cousins could keep their opinions or thoughts to themselves.

"Speaking of Patricia," Melinda cusped her hand around her neck, willing the building headache to evaporate. Dora slouched in her seat and kicked one of her patterned flats into the back of the passenger seat. The outgoing twin was resentful towards conversations that involved her unwilling magical other half.

"Still denying her magical heritage?" Patience sighed.

"You sound like neurotic boy," Dora rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. She was preparing to be on the defense.

"You shouldn't call Chris that." Patience shook her head, her eyes flashing a red in the rearview mirror as she stared back at Dora's gleaming blue hair.

"We're not talking about my older brothers and their issues right now, we're talking about Tricia. I think she was going to say she didn't believe in witches and magic earlier today." Melinda let out a heavy breath. Her eyes were still pressed tightly shut as she pushed her thumbs into her nose bridge.

"Where were you talking about magic and witches?" Patience voice was dangerously low and suspicion peppered her tone. Dora had leaned forward all of a sudden, interested in what might have even brought up such a direct conversation.

"English class, we're reading the comedy of errors. I'm not entirely sure what we were talking about, I had slightly dozed off…" Melinda sighed.

The car had stopped in front of the manor and Patience shut off the engine without making any attempt to get out of the car.

"Do you think she doesn't believe?" Patience finally asked.

"How can you even ask that?" Dora jumped in outrage. "We ARE witches for Merlin's sake. It's like denying she's a twin, it's not even possible."

"The yelling Dora," Melinda groaned. She reached out and pulled the handle of the door, pushing it open and sucking in the fresh damp air of the San Francisco fall.

"Merlin huh?" Patience mocked in a whisper. "Can you send out Pen? If I go in aunt Piper will convince me to hang out here until Mom or Dad calls me."

"Because they don't trust any of us." Dora grumbled pushing the passenger seat forward after Melinda stepped out.

"You have almost burned down the apartment twice this year alone." Melinda giggled at Dora.

"I have a little temper problem, not like you two don't. Red Eyes who was ironically named Patience. And just this afternoon you exerted some kind of power that…" Dora didn't finish the sentence before Melinda had kicked her behind the knees. Dora stopped talking as she fell forward.

"What power?" Patience leaned forward to look out the open door at Melinda.

"Nothing, she's just being cranky." Melinda shook her head slightly, as she stomped childishly on Dora's hand.

The manor door flew open, as if by magic, which these days was more likely than not. A single braid bounced off a charcoal colored trench coat, Penelope turned around to face the stairs carrying a stack of books that she pressed down with her pointed chin. Penelope was dressed for a winter in colder climates than the present day. Aside from coat she wore a knitted cap and a long scarf with her wool boots and fingerless mittens. The middle cupitch, as Chris had taken to calling the daughters of Phoebe and Coop, had developed into a slightly overcautious individual. Her experiences with the Akron demons and the underworld had left Penelope Halliwell more affected than her sisters, creating a type paranoia that her family was hoping she'd grow out of soon.

Piper appeared leaning against the doorframe, sipping at a cup of steaming tea. She waved at the girls on the sidewalk, observing them from afar patiently awaiting her daughter and fiery niece to get inside the house. Watching Penelope travel down the steps was similar to watching a snail travel across a fallen leaf. Patience, Melinda and Dora were still whispering arguments to each other not wanting Piper to get involved in their personal discussion of Melinda's possible new power and Tricia's growing threat to disown everything magical. As Penelope finally reached the sidewalk, Melinda and Dora turned to walk up the steps and each of Penelope's shoulders accidentally slammed into each other.

If the three girls had been normal, non-magically connected beings the shoulder contact might have been nothing but a sore spot. But the three girls were charmed cousins and three descendents from different charmed ones, all with the same magical blood and the shared power of sight. An unnatural glint of the final quarter moon in the afternoon light flashed down on the three girls as they all collapsed to the ground. A mug shattered and a car door slammed before everything went dark and the world disappeared.

The world took on a sepia coloring and everything became like a vividly real dream that they couldn't control. No longer on the concrete sidewalk, the girls were floating as transparent and non-exist watchers of a place far away.

A setting sun cast fancy shadows upon a little country road. Walking down a picturesque road nestled in-between two rows of trees, three demons walked along. Only a head of dark curls was familiar to the observers of the scene, the images fragmented in a shiver of fear. The demon in the center, his dark curls and stone coal eyes, walked with confidence of facing the charmed ones and their descendents unscratched. Nemod had crossed paths with the legendary family several times and was the only demon of the new generation to have any experience with the charmed power. The appearance of the only demon that had ever truly threatened the young charmed cousins still struck fear into their hearts. Nemod walked tall, his head up and his eyes focused on the road ahead. He was dressed in a simple white shirt, a pair of worn out jeans. Only the tiniest wrinkles formed around the demon's young face, the only indication that demonstrated Nemod's stress.

"Seers have a bad reputation of dying under your service." The woman to his left commented.

"It's a pity I can't just kill one and gain the power of sight." Nemod nodded seriously. The woman, a seer, didn't let on how disgusted she was by the thought. Instead her face remained stoic and as focused on the road ahead as Nemod. The third member of the party finally spoke, a woman in a dark cloak.

"Seer and Oracle blood is protected from theft. You must be born with the magic. Though Seers are often less powerful than Oracles, and since ancient Greece the woman who are seers are prone to ambition and manipulation to further their individual interests. While Oracles are about the craft, which is also why Oracles are so much harder to persuade to the path of evil or good." The woman recited.

"Thank you, Klea. Obviously I didn't know that." Nemod rolled his eyes.

"Are you saying that I'm opportunistic?" The young seer demanded.

"Of course you are, but so are we and this is why we make a good team." Nemod laughed and pointed to a little cottage that finally came into view at the end of the road.

The eyes of his female companions followed his pointing finger to the little visual end point of their journey.

"The home of Melinda Warren, the founder of the line of witches that will be our most formable enemy." Nemod smiled at the challenge. He took a quick step forward, pushing himself ahead where he spread out his arms and took in a deep breath.

"It is October, what we can accomplish in this month is unlike what we can do in so many of the other months." He laughed deviously.

"What is the plan of attack for the night the veil is weakened?" The woman known as Klea demanded.

"Time does not exist on all hallows eve, for present is the past and future is the present. A powerful witch now could be in grave danger then and plans will be enacted in a different outfit." The seer's eyes flashed an onyx color as Nemod clasped his hand around hers.

"Oh how I love the warren witches. Let us plan dear ones, let us plan." Nemod opened the door of the little cottage and motioned for his two followers to enter the darkness.

The sound of the vision dissolved upon the demons entering the cottage. The illusion became flashes of the surroundings itself. A shattered view of the cottage walls, of posted photographs of the charmed ones in their younger days combined with school pictures of the charmed children. There was a table with knives, axes, hooks and other torturous devices. There was a flash of an upside pentagram, a skull, and a floating cauldron.

"Blood," Someone crackled before everything went dark.

Wyatt Halliwell laid his youngest sibling onto the couch carefully. He arranged her arm to not be pressed underneath her body and brushed her hair away from her face.

"Mels?" He whispered cautiously. There was no sign of waking from Melinda before Wyatt straightened back up, hearing his mother and cousin struggling outside the open front door.

"Christopher, I'm not kidding." Wyatt angrily whispered at the ceiling before waving his hand in front of his face. The wave created a magic shimmer changing his blue eyes to green eyes and his blond curls to flipped out brown locks, the most noticeable differences between the brothers. Appearing as Chris, Wyatt traveled hurriedly out the front door past Piper and Patience carrying a lifeless Penelope. The only part of Dora that signaled life was her raising chest as Wyatt approached her. In a swift motion of experience, Wyatt picked up his younger cousin and started to heal her blindly as he walked her into the manor. The door slammed magically behind him as he opened his mouth again to call for his irresponsible brother.

"Chris!"

"He isn't answering me either, he better have a good explanation for ignoring his mother." Piper grumbled slightly as she fussed over the pillows beneath Penelope's head. Wyatt rested Dora on a love seat in a careful hurry.

"Doesn't he always," Melinda croaked as she opened her eyes slowly. Wyatt was shimmering back his own face, as Patience ran into the kitchen to grab some glasses of water.

"Don't move." Wyatt commanded as he stepped forward to the couch. Piper was trying to wake Penelope, softly shaking the girl.

"I'm fine…" Melinda sighed trying to sit up. Wyatt was over his sister in fractions of a second, one hand holding her down and the other glowing a healing light over her body. Patience was back quickly, holding out a glass of water to Melinda as Wyatt released her.

"You didn't have to heal me," Melinda complained.

"Drink the water." Patience commanded as Wyatt moved to the waking Penelope. While Piper fretted towards the still sleeping Dora, to try to move her awake. The moments after the three cousins had collapsed had been chaotic. Piper had run out seeking the attacker, while Patience had jumped to protect the vulnerable girls on the sidewalk. When nothing attacked again, or at all, Wyatt appeared in the manor having sense a surge of power unlike anything he had ever sensed before.

"What the hell happened?" Patience demanded as Dora's eyes fluttered opened.

"Language, Patience." Piper chastised.

"I just healed a few scratches and bruises from the fall to the concrete sidewalk. So it wasn't a demon, but the power surges felt like it was punching me in the stomach right around the time that you three…" Wyatt paused stuck for words.

"Fainted." Melinda sighed. A glowing swirl of lights rain down into the foyer and materialized into Chris. Dressed in complete black, from a regular t-shirt down to his tennis shoes, everyone in the room knew that Chris had been demon hunting.

"You," Wyatt sprang towards his younger brother. Chris jumped away quickly, not allowing himself to be caught.

"What did you see?" Chris demanded orbbing away from his brother's outstretched hands and appearing at the top of the stairs.

"What is going on here?" Piper demanded, standing up and crossing her arms. Wyatt started to orb, and suddenly the brothers had changed positions with Wyatt at the top of the stairs and Chris in the foyer.

"Stop that right now, both of you." Piper growled at her grown sons.

"What did you see?" Chris demanded again of his sister and cousins.

"Patience," Wyatt snapped his fingers.

"Don't you dare!" Chris held up a finger and ducked just in case.

"You know I can't actually freeze him for you," Patience rolled her eyes. Wyatt ran down the stairs as Chris moved to the other side of the room, his green eyes still fixated on his younger sister. Melinda was avoiding the piercing glare from Chris though and staring at Dora.

"We didn't see anything." Penelope stated confidently.

"What did you see?" Chris asked again, jumping over a small end table to try to get away from Wyatt yet again.

"Stop it," Piper threw her hands up instinctively trying to freeze her running son. Chris stood still for a second too long and Wyatt tackled him to the ground. The boys disappeared in orbs again, leaving the three cousins and the oldest charmed one alone.

"I'm going to ground both of them." Piper grumbled.

"You know that they're too old for that Aunt Piper?" Patience laughed.

"No they're not." Piper frowned looking at the ceiling as she heard the brothers scuffling above. Patience picked up where Chris left off in the discussion though, knowing what her mentor wanted to know.

"Are you sure that you didn't see anything?" Patience asked cautiously of her sister.

"I'm not sure what happened," Dora interjected.

"My head just hurts, maybe it was like a magical shock? Things were just black." Melinda nodded trying to convince not only her mother and cousin but herself as well. The truth of matter was that the three cousins knew they had seen something, seen images and heard words, plans and people. But they did not understand what they had seen and had no desire to re-experience the moments with their over protective and worrying family. Melinda, Pandora, Patricia had once long along decided that their magical affairs were theirs alone and often exclude their siblings and cousins from what happened to them individually. Since the incident with Nemod, Patricia's avoidance of anything magical lead to Melinda and Pandora expanding their circle to Penelope. Penelope Halliwell wasn't as magically inclined or talented as Melinda or Pandora, but she was well informed. Penelope was on a quest to learn magic without practicing it much, though none of her older cousins, siblings or family members had realized her adversity to using her powers yet. A crisis of confidence had shaken the Halliwell clan, silently and discreetly, Nemod's attack had affected each cousin differently but it had not left anyone the same.

"Don't worry about it girls, I'll call Leo. They will do research about this at magic school. Until then just sit here, I'm going to make us a snack. Patience, will you go tell my sons that they have three minutes to get into the kitchen and explain to me what is going on before I ground both of them." Piper announced. The oldest charmed one had slight wrinkles forming around her eyes, the natural place where her skin creased in her angry and critical frown. Wagging a finger at Patience for only seconds, ensuring her threat was understood, Piper hurried into the kitchen already punching in a number into her cell phone. Patience sighed unhappy about her assignment to the oldest and most stubborn members of her family, trudging up the stairs.

"Maybe you can remind both of them that they are both grounded until they are 30…" Melinda laughed sitting up and pulling a hair tie out of her dark mane.

"I thought it was indefinitely until aunt Piper decided they were better behaved…" Dora giggled kicking off her shoes.

"Last I heard until they started showing signs of maturity, they weren't to leave their rooms according to Uncle Leo…" Penelope nodded shrugging out of her many layers of clothing. Patience moved away from the giggling mockery of the charmed brothers who had never spent more than a couple of weeks in the good graces of their parents in their young lives. Patience wandered down the hallway, listening to the knocking and yelling to figure out where Wyatt and Chris had resumed their fighting. Chris came flying out of his own room, slamming into the wall across the wall and causing the frame photographs of the boys in Halloween costumes to crash onto the ground. Wyatt strolled into the hallway with his hands clutched like birds talons at Chris that explained why the escapist brother had yet to move. Wyatt was magically holding the little brother in place.

"Your mother says you have three minutes to get into the kitchen and explain what in heaven's name is going on before…" Patience recited.

"We're grounded. We're always grounded." Chris rolled his eyes struggling against Wyatt's magic on the ground.

"I'm going to let you go, because you know she will ground us. But if you orb off, I will personally hunt you down and hold you down while she takes away your active powers," Wyatt wagged his mother's finger at his younger brother. Chris stole a glance at Patience, who nodded that she believed Wyatt completely before resigning himself. Wyatt dropped his hands as Patience muttered a quick spell to return the framed photograph to the wall. Shooting out a hand to help Chris up, Wyatt shook his head in annoyance at the magic but kept his opinions in check.

"What is going on? We use to do everything together? Why all of a sudden are you being so secretive?" Wyatt demanded. Chris took a deep breath, allowing his chest to expand under his dark black shirt and a tiny groan of pain escaped him. Patience caught the emotion suddenly and clutched at her chest in pain.

"I'm not being secretive, I'm just taking care of some things you don't need to worry about." Chris defended snapping his fingers at Patience. Chris didn't want Patience to give away his pain. He didn't need another reason for his twice-blessed older brother to fret over him.

"We agreed on normal for a little while, but I'm not willing to sacrifice you for my normal. Do you understand?" Wyatt begged.

"WYATT! CHRISTOPHER! I want you down stairs NOW!" Piper called up from the kitchen stairs. Both grown boys shuttered at their mother's tone and Patience smiled to herself, it was not many that could scare the Halliwell brothers but bring in their angry mother and the boys turned into children.

"I am going to check on the girls," Patience commented heading towards the main house stairs as Wyatt shoved Chris down the smaller backstairs that led into the kitchen. Piper was standing over the counter, her hair neatly lifted up into a loose bun. She was chopping up some vegetables carefully avoiding her draping shirt every time she brought down her knife. A smile flickered when she heard the remorseful footsteps of her sons behind her.

"I sense my boys are hiding things from me…" Piper sighed as she pushed away the chopped cucumber. In a charming manner, Chris softly pushed his mother aside from her counter and worked his right hand under hers to clutch the chopping knife. Meanwhile, Wyatt snatched up an apple from the nearby fruit bowl and started munching on it nonchalantly. Piper allowed Christ to push her out of the way, she was aware that her youngest son needed to keep his hands busy. Actually upon studying the boys she knew from experience that Chris was beyond guilty about something and that Wyatt was completely content in knowing that he had nothing to account for. Also from experience, Piper knew she couldn't start grinding into Chris right away. She sighed and walked over to Wyatt, patted him on the arm and pointed to the round ball of dough near Chris.

"Go on then, be useful." She pointed to it before she started grabbing pots and pans. Wyatt rolled his eyes as he kept the apple in his mouth with just his teeth and started kneeling dough without a compliant. Piper started heating up a skillet, carefully measuring out ingredients and the kitchen was serenely quiet. Piper was timing her lecture. Her annoyance was not getting the best of her on this particular afternoon.

"Wyatt, how did you know to orb here after the girls fainted?" Piper finally asked. Deciding to start with her less guilty son. Wyatt munched on another piece of his apple quickly before responding.

"I felt like a black out and sensed it was coming from here, and with everything I've been feeling from Chris. I was worried that something was really wrong." Wyatt explained. Chris snapped a glare at his older brother when his name was mentioned. There was no need for Wyatt to mention anything about Chris in that statement, but it was a cue that Wyatt was going to get his parents involved if Chris kept shutting down his big brother.

"Well that power detecting power is really growing quite nicely then. You didn't leave class or anything?" Piper asked, ignoring the Chris portion of the response thus far. She was speaking to Wyatt but her brown eyes were intently focused on her nervous middle child. She was noted that Chris' breathing was labored and that his shoulders were tension but if he was hurt, she wanted him to just come out and admit it already.

"No, I don't have any Monday classes this semester." Wyatt shook his head. The older young man pushed his palms into the dough and started stretching out in the way that Piper had taught him over a decade ago.

"Any idea why the girls fainted like that Wyatt?" Piper asked, pointedly asking only her oldest. Chris twitched at the question, recognizing that he wasn't going to be a part of the conversation until he spoke up.

"The only thing that I know of that can make that happen to such powerful witches is demons." Wyatt shrugged. Chris gritted his teeth, trying to not talk. Chris knew that if he could keep quiet for the whole conversation, his mother might not berate him anything. It was like a test of wills that the two Halliwells sometimes entered into, Piper was trying to regain some degree of Chris blind trust and Chris was trying to prove that he didn't need his mother at every magical mishap. But the moment that Chris opened his mouth of perfectly straight teeth, he would open the can of parental worms.

"I was standing at the door, I didn't see any demons. Because that is what I thought at first too but it seems the girls just fainted. Maybe you can go check the book of shadows though, I wouldn't know what you are looking for," Piper smiled softly knowing that Chris would be unable to pretend to be so interested in his cutting any longer.

"It wasn't a demon, did the girls touch before they fainted?" Chris demanded, finally breaking and dropping the knife.

"Maybe if you had come when you had been called, you would know." Wyatt snickered.

"The girls had already fainted by the time Mom or you called me the first time." Chris snapped back.

"I've been trying to get a hold of you all day!" Wyatt fought.

"Because you knew this was going to happen?" Chris mocked.

"I knew Melinda had a headache, maybe if you just once actually responded to me when I called you!" Wyatt slammed the dough into the counter.

"I can not come running every time that you're being paranoid and overprotective." Chris crossed his arms defensively.

"But we're all expected to come when you're being paranoid and overprotective." Wyatt rolled his eyes. The brothers being so consumed by their sibling bickering didn't notice how their mother had wandered over to stand in-between them. Piper Halliwell was much shorter than her two overgrown sons, but in her eyes they were still her babies no taller than the kitchen table.

"Enough." Piper snapped her fingers and her forceful tone caused a pair of blue and green eyes to look down at her in annoyance.

"Wyatt, I want you to go check the Book of Shadows for what might have caused the girls to faint like that." Piper instructed her oldest.

"But mom," Chris started but Piper held up her hand to silence him.

"I agree with Chris, I'm sure that the girls saw something even if they didn't think they did. They are all blessed with the power of sight, so that might be something to look into." Piper finished explaining and Wyatt started to orb but his mother's hand shot out and held him down.

"I want you to walk, no more magic for the rest of the night. And you'll stay for dinner. I don't think you're eating enough at that school. If you behave during dinner, I'll let you talk to your brother about why he's been demon hunting so much." Piper smiled at him.

"What if he doesn't behave?" Chris demanded.

"Than your father can figure out what you've been doing, because I think if you tell me that you're just being reckless I might blow you up." Piper sighed. Wyatt snickered before ducking up the stairs. Piper turned to face her youngest now, she placed her hands on each of his shoulders.

"Peanut, there is a time and place to hunt demons relentlessly. This is neither the time nor place for that, you understand me?" Piper demanded of him.

"But mom…." Chris started.

"Stop." Piper frowned. "I am not saying you shouldn't hunt some demons, I know you're working on something. But its still not your time, I don't want you to get tired before it's really your turn."

"But mom…" Chris tried again.

"No. Your aunts and I might be older now, but we are still the charmed ones. You are a reckless nineteen-year-old with a personal need to prove himself and I would prefer that you stay in one piece. So you have to been more careful and you have to slow down, and you better be passing your classes." Piper pressed her index finger into the young man's nose. Chris frowned, shaking off the maternal finger that made him actually feel no taller than the kitchen counter.

"Mom," He complained.

"I want you to go upstairs and shower, there's still demon guts in your hair. Then I want you to be cleaned up for dinner, which you will be here for. I don't want to hear that you have something to do or somewhere to go. You will stay for dinner to please your mother who has been very calm about your blatant disrespect and disregard." Piper finished.

"Yes ma'am." Chris sighed knowing he would never win the argument.

"And you will sleep tonight Christopher, so help me I will magically imprison you in your own room. If you think that for one minute I haven't noticed that you've been coming in at dawn and haven't been sleeping at all, you are mistaken sir." Piper lightly smacked him in the shoulder to make her point. Chris opened his mouth to protest but a point finger from Piper made him rethink the idea.

"Yes ma'am." He sighed again and started jumping up the stairs, running away before his mother could restrict him from anything else. Chris pulled off his black shirt as he climbed up the last step.

"You're bruised." Patience whispered from her perch near the top of the main stairs.

"Yeah, well…" Chris draped his shirt over his right shoulder trying to hide the extent of his injuries.

"You should just let Wyatt heal you." Patience sighed.

"What are you doing?" Chris walked up behind her.

"Listening to the girls, because you are of course right. They did see something." Patience nodded, pushing Chris back softly so that he might not give away her eavesdropping.

"Can you make out what they saw, and why didn't they just tell us?" Chris asked, whispering.

"You know you smell horrible." Patience sighed, playfully pushing him away from her.

"That was definitely that answer to what I asked." Chris took a step back. Patience giggled softly and turned around to look up and down the hallway.

"Where's Wy?" She asked cautiously.

"Looking through the book of shadows." Chris frowned.

"Assuming you would be as nosy as usual, and also banking on the fact that it's a familial trait to be secretive." Patience snapped her fingers and a pink smoke formed into a little tape recorder. "I recorded the girls conversation, with a pretty nifty little spell."

"Don't tell Wyatt." Chris laughed. "But not a bad idea."

"Now, will you please go shower. I am going to pass out from the stink of you." Patience pinched her nose to emphasis her point. Chris threw his shirt at her before running into the bathroom across the hallway. Locking the door behind him, Chris turned on the shower and set up the glittering pink tape recorder on the bathroom counter and pressed play.

"It was Nemod." Melinda's voice was clear and strong on the tape recorder. Chris' heartbeat started beating faster at the name of the demon that was still at large due to his inexperience the first and only time they had face each other.

"But he looked older." Pandora sounded puzzled.

"Maybe it was just a dream." Penelope asked hopeful.

"No, it wasn't a dream. We don't all pass out when we're dreaming," Dora argued.

"I've been slipping in and out of visions." Melinda whispered.

"Maybe it's because you haven't been sleeping." Penelope suggested. "You're so tired that you slip into dreams that you think are visions?"

"Have you become afraid of magic?" Dora quietly asked of their young cousin.

"No," Penelope responded though not convincingly.

"It couldn't have been a vision of the future, I can't see the future without Tricia." Dora ignored the clearly shaken Penelope.

"But I can, and so can Penelope. Might we not have acted like Tricia for you?" Melinda asked.

"I don't think so. But it matters not, I don't even think it was the future." Dora shoo her head.

"I think we were seeing something that was happening." Penelope inserted.

"Yes, I think so as well. But did you understand any of it?" Melinda wondered. There was a silence that made Chris think that the girls were lost in thought.

"We should tell Chris and Wyatt." Melinda finally spoke again.

"They never tell us anything." Dora snapped.

"And we don't even know what we're telling them." Penelope agreed.

"And knowing my brothers, they will want to go after the threat and what if we're wrong." Melinda sighed.

"Maybe we can wait?" Penelope begged.

"Until we know what we saw? Maybe if we see something else?" Dora agreed.

"Maybe…" Melinda sighed. The tape recorder disappeared in a puff of pink smoke and Chris leaned his head underneath the spout of water, allowing the water to wash away all the demon bits from his dark hair. Chris was sure that he was the only one of his family members that understood the terrible storm that was brewing in the distance of the manor.

_Author's Note: Sorry, we're about four day late on this particular chapter. I got caught up with my weekend! I am hoping to post chapter 3 re-write by Thursday afternoon. Please remember to let me know what you think so far, there was more new stuff in this chapter. _


	4. Through All Them Troubled Times

**Through All Them Troubled Times**

_Collie Man: Slightly Stoopid_

**August 2015 **

The manor teamed with activity, a house full of children and parents ready for a planned life event. In the front foyer, Leo stood blocking the exit of his enraged teenage son. An argument exploded that involved Leo explaining for the fourth time in one day, that family functions were not to be ignored by his oldest son ever. Sitting at the dining room table, with his head slumped into his scrawny arms Chris complained to Coop. The younger brother not understanding why Wyatt had to be interested in girls all of sudden, and so disinterested in him. In the sunroom, Billie was trying to keep the twins entertained while Paige summoned Grams to perform the ceremony rites of the youngest Halliwells wiccaning. Grandpa Victor was playing with Patience, a game of barrel of monkeys in the living room. Piper was fussing in the kitchen trying to make a nice meal for the adults, while also something edible for the kids as young Melinda helped. Phoebe was pacing around the upstairs hallway trying to keep a baby Primrose happy and awake for the ceremony. Samuel and Henry were trying to find the oldest of the Mitchell children, who had seemingly disappeared in the busy household.

The young Henry was sitting on the dark stone floor of the basement of the old house. Bent over a crippled mess of a little bird's nest, the little boy held his hands above it in the same way his mother held them when she was healing anyone. Tears were escaping his brown eyes, as he pushed out his fingers trying to get his young magic to work like he wanted. The door opened high above the steps, an older man's voice called out that they had found the missing child. No one knows if it was the discovery, the distress, or some heighten sense to their cousins' pain but in a flurry of white lights the Halliwell cavalry, of sorts, arrived. Before Henry could come down to retrieve his son, preteens Wyatt and Chris were standing by boy's side. Wyatt bent down to examine the problem, while Chris surveyed the situation. A lone baseball lay to the right and with that the little mastermind could deduce that Henry had accidentally knocked the birds' nest from its perch.

"I was trying to save them, I think I hurt them. It was an accident." Henry sobbed a bit at Wyatt. Wyatt nodded holding out his hands, but a glance at Chris made the oldest cousin rethink his actions. Wyatt placed his hands on top of Henry's already shaking hands and started healing the little birds through his cousin's hands. Chris nodded in approval, kicking the evidence of the baseball away from the scene as Henry came trotting down the stairs tailed by Patience, Melinda, Patricia and Pandora.

"HJ just healed some baby birds that he saw get hurt." Chris smiled brightly at his uncle.

"He had to come in here because you know, exposure and everything." Wyatt nodded in approval.

"Are the birds ok?" Patricia and Pandora chirped in unison.

"HJ can't heal…" Patience squinted her eyes at the older Halliwells suspiciously.

"Wyatt, can you put the nest back with your magic? My teacher told us that if baby birds smell like humans than the mommy birds won't come back." Melinda begged her older brother. The only adult in the room stared around at the youthful chaos, completely unsure as to what had really happened. But it seemed that every child was completely intact, so Henry Mitchell Senior decided not to worry about it.

**October 4, 2023 **

Magic School was busy with activity, as the first day of October preparations had begun for the celebration of All Hallows Eve. Though many of the students were in class still, several members of the staff and members of the charmed family were wandering around with charts and clipboards.

Sitting in a regular looking classroom, towards the middle of the room completely distracted by the empty space beside her sat Penelope Halliwell. There were about fifteen other students in the room, all intently taking notes on the lecture. Penelope was lost in a vision of a time and place far from Magic School though.

_A dark apartment with a checkered floor, a beautiful view from bay windows and a tall handsome man dominated her vision. Then familiar orbbing lights brought down Aunt Piper and Uncle Leo, younger than she ever remembered them. Last came aunt Paige, in a particularly cute bright red coat. There was a fire burning in the fireplace, as Piper yelled for Phoebe. _

"_You evil son of a bitch," Paige huffed at the man as Piper threw her hands up and the demon dispersed into a middle flying pieces. Paige started placing crystals on the ground, as Piper called out for Phoebe again. _

"_Get out here and help us damn it." Piper demanded. The demon rematerialized, as a tall dark handsome man. He threw Paige against the wall and threatened to kill them. That's when Phoebe walked out and picked up the fallen crystal. She walked into the center of the checkered floor, clutching the crystal in her gut. She kissed the dark man, kissed him in a way that was asking for forgiveness and bidding him farewell. _

"_I'm sorry too…" Phoebe cried as she stepped back and placed the last crystal on the ground. Phoebe joined her sisters outside the crystal cage, tears already flowing from her eyes as she clutched Paige and Piper. _

"_Phoebe, no…" The man cried. _

"_I'm sorry baby, I'm so sorry." Phoebe shook her head. _

"_Prudence, Penelope…" Piper started to chant. _

"Penelope?" Kyle Broody sounded like an annoyed teacher as his voice snapped the young girl out of her thoughts. Her eyes had grown a darker shade of red, indicating that Chris had arrived somewhere on campus.

"Yes, Mr. Broody?" She asked him sweetly.

"What was the year the civil war ended?" He asked her, his dark eyes piercing through her very soul. She shifted uncomfortably as she carefully and discreetly edged her hand to touch the closed history book on her desk. At her touch, the image of page about the end of the civil war jumped out to her in black and white like a vision of something past.

"1865." She replied smiling.

"And what day was the first surrender given? And by whom?" Broody asked.

Still touching her history book, the young lady started blinking her eyes rapidly a clear indication she was using her powers. The bell rang before she came to the answer, and the students around her hustled out of the room but Broody stood in Penelope's way.

"Miss Halliwell." He sighed giving her disapproving gaze.

"Mr. Broody, I'm sorry I was just daydreaming again." Penelope sighed giving him a little smile. She pushed her book bag onto her shoulder and tried to move away but her teacher stepped in front of her again. Kyle was sure that Penelope had fallen into a vision of some sort, though it was hard to tell if the half cupid was really just daydreaming or having a vision.

"This isn't the first time, I'm worried you are less focused on your general education than you are on your magical education. You are close to failing my class, I am going to have to discuss it with the headmaster." Mr. Broody said the words quietly, not harshly. He wasn't trying to reprimand the young girl. He was trying to read her face, body language, and emotions. The young white lighter had yet to reveal himself to his charges but he had become a presence in their lives, especially since Leo had hired him on as a history teacher. Both the younger cupid cousins now attended Magic School. Penelope and Primrose had been students at their uncle's school for the last two years. At first it had been a mutual decision to keep youngest girls protected because they would be alone on their respective campuses. But now Penelope was a freshman in high school, but she had begged to remain at magic school. Phoebe and Coop hadn't been willing to allow it, arguing that Penelope needed the normal life more than the magical training. But with unexpected advocacy from her older cousin Chris, Phoebe and Coop had agreed to let the girl try it on a trial basis.

"Mr. Broody you can't tell uncle Leo about it! He'll tell my parents and then I won't be allowed to stay at magic school…" Penelope chewed on her bottom lip looking flustered suddenly.

"I'm going to have to speak to your parents anyway Penelope." Mr. Broody shook his head.

"But Mr. Broody, I can bring my grade up honest." Penelope begged now, her eyes gleaming in a blue tint.

"Mine isn't the only class you're on the edge of failing." Mr. Broody studied her eyes flash different colors.

"Why don't you want to go to the regular high school your sister and cousins attend? George Washington High School is an incredibly good school." Broody suddenly asked his wonderings aloud. He could feel the anxiety rolling off of his young charge.

"I just don't think I would fit in there." Penelope mumbled under her breath. Kyle Broody frowned at this because Penelope Halliwell wasn't necessarily a socialite at Magic School either.

"You are excelling at your magical courses. Though you don't seem to like to practice your magic outside of the classroom setting." Kyle ventured to comment.

"I promise, I can bring my grade up." Penelope ignored the teacher's commentary.

"I'll give you a week to bring up your grades, but I still have to speak to your parents and to the headmaster. I would suggest that you try to do better in your other classes too." Kyle gave her a stern glance before letting the young girl scurry away.

Penelope rushed down the endless hallway crashing into Chris. A box of toys fell out over the floor and Chris picked himself up annoyed and ready to yell at the running student only to realize it was his cousin.

"Pen, something wrong?" Chris asked her his eyes shifting around worriedly. Penelope swallowed and shook her head not looking at the green eyes that she knew would recognize the lie.

"What's going on Penelope?" Chris squinted at her trying to catch what color her eyes were. Penelope bent down and started picking up nerf guns, darts, and plastic bowling pins and throwing them into the now empty box. Her clipped back hair clung to her shoulders, an emotional magic was radiating off of her noticeably. Chris stooped down and waved his hand over the remaining fallen objects causing them to magically get back into the box.

"So is it a boy problem?" Chris tried to change up his tone and approach. Penelope shook her head rapidly though and Chris frowned. Sitting down on the marble floor with his knees against his chest, Chris crossed his arms around his legs.

"I am going to sit here until you tell me what is going on," Chris said stubbornly. He was only going to be patient for so long, as a charmer and well-intentioned individual he wasn't use to information being withheld from him long. In Chris' experience, he was the withholder not the other way around.

"It's just school stuff." Penelope shrugged standing up. "And I'm going to be late for my next class."

"What kind of school stuff?" Chris asked suspiciously as he jumped to his feet as well.

"Well," Penelope starred at her cousin now and her eyes were bright with an idea. "You might be able to help me figure this out. But can we talk later?"

"Yeah, all right." Chris said slowly nodding. "Dad won't be happy if I'm late to teach my class, again."

Penelope ran off looking nervously over her shoulder every few steps. Chris frowned at her. Penelope was the quietest of the cousins. She had unfortunately been the most affected by the rise of the underworld a few years back. But unlike Patricia who was rejecting her magic, Penelope was prone to learning the craft but not using her own active powers. The family had worried about her, while Chris had defended her going to magic school in hopes that it would bring up her confidence aside from her being protected.

Chris walked into his classroom already filled with ankle bitters, as he lovingly called them.

"CHRIS!" The children in the room chanted excitedly. Chris was by far one of the younger children's favorite magical teachers. He never wore the school robes, always laughed at their antics and brought toys to every lesson. Primrose bounced into Chris' side and threw her arms around the young man's legs. This prompted a group attack and soon a group of third-graders were using Chris as a jungle gym.

"All right, all right. I'm glad to see you guys too." Chris laughed carefully prying the kids off of him. Primrose was the only one that remained immovable.

"Prim." Chris looked down at her expectantly. Primrose smiled up at her cousin, up until last year it was common knowledge among the cousins that Primrose heavily favored Wyatt. But since Chris had started teaching at Magic School the youngest had become increasingly attached to the younger Halliwell brother.

"You are late again." Primrose crinkled her nose in the same manner she had everyday since she had been born.

"Yeah, we're all going to keep that between us though right?" Chris smiled recklessly at his students. The children in the room nodded excitedly back at him.

"All right," Chris clapped his hands. "I need everyone on this side of the room to grab some nerf guns. And everyone on this side to get ready to defend themselves magically, including you misfit." Chris pushed Primrose away. The kids in the room scattered, the designated half grabbing weapons and the other half looking excitedly scared. The little battle began and Chris stood on the sidelines, waving nerf darts away from hitting eyes. He shouted out instructions and encouragement to the children in the room, laughing at their victory hoots.

Further down the endless magical Hallway in his office, Leo Wyatt sat with his elbows on his desk mindlessly stirring his already cold coffee while glancing over student files. The much younger Kyle Broody sat across from the aged headmaster, giving student updates in a quiet but steady drum like beat and tone. The tranquility of the academic setting was shattered as the three doors leading into the office from every direction except for the one wall directly behind Leo burst open.

"Leo," Three voices shouted almost as one. After decades of fighting together as the charmed ones, it was hard for the three sisters not to harmonize with each other.

"Piper is being completely unreasonable! I just want a few ghosts and that popular band that the boys in the magical transfiguration class formed last semester but she's refusing to budge on the stage because it's in the way of her buffet styled banquet!" Paige ranted her arms waving around her head in aggravation. Her emerald green glasses were lopsided on her face as he dark brown hair swept into her face.

"Both of them don't like my pumpkin idea and for no good reason! I don't even think they are listening to me because they're too busy bickering with each other." Phoebe moaned over Paige's compliant. Phoebe wore a boat neck orange shirt ruched on both sides that hung slightly over her black a-line pencil skirt. She clutched at her plans of decorations, pieces of paper that were as long as her torso.

"Just tell them you agree with me Leo. I'm the head of the committee anyway. And I'm the oldest sister!" Piper's commanding voice was no louder than her sisters but clearly was the most stubborn. Piper had her arms folded tightly over her classic black button down shirt and her nose was wrinkled in distaste at Paige.

"Piper," Leo started but was quickly ignored.

"Oh, yippee. Just cause all of us aren't half a century old obviously means we're not fit to make decisions about how to entertain children." Paige sneered.

"Was that a crack about my age? You aren't a spring chicken yourself anymore Paige." Piper snapped.

"Did you just say spring chicken? Now you're sounding like Grams. You have gotten old." Phoebe starred disbelievingly at her older sister. Kyle started laughing breaking the tension as he clapped mockingly at the sisters.

"The famous Charmed Ones ladies and gentlemen. First and foremost bickering sisters and secondly powerful witches." Kyle flashed the angry looking sisters a smile.

"What is Broody doing here?" Phoebe demanded.

"Sitting mostly, right here." Kyle pointed to himself with one hand as he waved to Phoebe with the other hand.

"He is a teacher here, Phoebe." Leo sighed.

"When are you going to get over your problem with Kyle?" Paige sighed.

"She was over it until she found out that her favorite ex-boyfriend of yours became her precious girls' whitelighter." Piper rolled her eyes.

"Oh, you want to talk about the over-protective parenting? You won't even let your 19 year-old-son make his own life decisions!" Phoebe shouted at Piper.

"Girls!" Leo shouted forcefully making the three women snapped their angry looks at him.

"I think they pointed out they weren't that young anymore." Kyle commented as he kicked his legs up onto the desk. Leo glared at the man, the wrinkles forming around his still crystal blue eyes.

"You aren't helping Kyle." Leo pointed out and Kyle shrugged apologetically. Piper, Phoebe and Paige had clumped together in the middle of the room and were still arguing with each other. Leo looked from the files on his desk to the women in the center of the room.

"Debating which matter is really worth the energy there, Leo?" Kyle smiled.

"You wait until you have to deal with my cupid nieces." Leo grumbled at the young whitelighter.

"Oh, they are already proving to be difficult alone. I can't imagine having to deal with all three of them. At least you didn't have to deal with these three when they were rebelling." Kyle frowned out the open door. All the Halliwells had been troublesome teenagers. All except for Piper but her children had made up for her lack of rebellion ten-fold already.

A young woman in a short sheer green dress came floating into the room with her nose in a book. Upon entering the room her head snapped up.

"Oh the charmed ones are upset." She commented as she kept floating towards the headmaster.

"They are anxious about this Halloween, they fear the attacks on their children. A repeat of last year might not end as well, they're trying to make this party perfect so that their children will all be safely in their protection." The girl had tipped her head to the side as she stared serenely at the Charmed sisters.

"So that's what this is about," Leo nodded. "Thank you Caitlin for clearing that up for us."

The three women glared at the girl, still floating a few feet up in the air.

"And Mr. Broody has something to…" Caitlin started but Kyle jumped to his feet quickly.

"Did you need something Caitlin?" Kyle asked her before she could say anything more.

"Yes sir," Caitlin frowned. "Professor Vanguard was teaching the basics of crystal balls and one of our students dropped it, shattering the glass all over themselves." Caitlin explained in great detail.

"Are they hurt badly?" Leo demanded. Caitlin shook her head.

"Not too badly, but there is some blood and a deep cut and Professor Vanguard was hoping that you might come and heal it Mr. Broody." Caitlin smiled brightly at Kyle.

"Yes well let's go then, want to come down from there?" Kyle asked the girl. Caitlin stared down at her floating feet confused.

"The mental energy in the room is far to great for me to come down currently, sir." She bit at her lip nervously.

"Caitlin, I thought we had discussed practicing your uncontrollable magic?" Leo sighed patiently giving her an expectant look. Caitlin nodded.

"I have been trying headmaster, but the charmed ones have very powerful thoughts. Especially suppressed fears and anxieties." Caitlin gave Piper a sincere smile.

"She's a telepath isn't she?" Phoebe asked pointedly. Caitlin nodded.

"Yes ma'am, you should speak to Mr. Broody about your concerns." She added hesitantly not looking at Kyle while she made the suggestion.

"All right then let's go." Kyle practically ran out of the office, Caitlin following closely behind him. Phoebe watched them through a squinted suspicious glare.

"So you three are worried that the kids aren't going to come celebrate Halloween here?" Leo crossed his arms and leaned onto his desk.

"Last year was the first time that any of the kids weren't with us on Halloween and we saw how that turned out." Piper grumbled.

"It was a bad set of circumstances Piper," Leo started. "Wyatt and Chris handled the situation and Patience and Henry were fine."

"It was a very close call Leo. Henry was really hurt and he's a self healer, this year the twins want to have their sweet sixteen on Halloween." Paige started pacing and running her hand through her hair.

"But they should understand the dangers of that evening?" Leo's forehead was creasing further into a frown.

"Patricia is refusing to acknowledge she's even a witch anymore at this point. And Pandora, well Pandora is a walking magical disaster. She's a bit more Halliwell than the other two," Paige groaned.

"All impulse without a sense of her own mortality?" Leo questioned suddenly. Piper, Phoebe and Paige glared at the man that had been with them every step of their magical lives.

"Patience keeps hinting that she wants to go party with Chris this year," Phoebe started. "Or that she wants to visit Dervin, even though I think they broke again last week."

"Christopher is going to be here." Piper said resolutely. Paige snorted back a giggle.

"Chris is not a seven year old anymore." Paige laughed at her older sister.

"Wyatt is going to be here too." Piper challenged.

"Piper, you can't really expect the boys to be here that night…" Phoebe sighed.

"They will do something between then and now that I will use to guilt them into being here with, I know my boys." Piper shrugged. Leo laughed, there was no doubt that his wife was probably right about the boys getting into some sort of scrap. Though the father was unsure that his adult sons could be convinced to come to another Magic School Halloween celebration.

"Primrose is having a birthday party next weekend that Wyatt and Chris have promised to go to." Phoebe smiled brightly.

"Aren't you and Leo going to New York this weekend?" Paige asked suddenly forgetting her anxieties and standing still for a second.

"I don't think we should leave…" Piper started.

"Piper," Leo whined. "We've been over this. Melinda is not a baby and Chris is perfectly capable of keeping an eye on his younger sister."

"I just don't feel right about this, the last time that we left them home alone Wyatt blew up the kitchen and Chris turned Melinda into a cat." Piper sighed.

"That was over five years ago Piper, they've all matured and grown up a lot since then." Leo argued.

"Well if you hadn't taken Chris demon-hunting from the moment he was born, then maybe I wouldn't have to worry about our reckless demon-focused middle son so much." Piper snapped.

"Now you're blaming Leo for the fact that Chris is slightly fixated on destroying demons?" Paige rolled her eyes.

"She might have a point that it influenced his perception of the world, Chris was demon hunting with Leo since he was an infant. As was Wyatt, none of the other kids are as prone to demon hunting as the two of them." Phoebe nodded.

"Might that have something to do with the fact that the two of them have been more constantly attacked since birth? Pandora and Patricia weren't even directly attacked for the first time until they were 13. That's 13 years of peaceful growing up, Wyatt and Chris were not so lucky." Paige argued.

Leo was scratching his chin in annoyance at the turn of the conversation. The once white lighter, was not fond of the conversations his wife sparked about the reasons for her eldest children being so much more Halliwell than the rest of the children. It was obvious to Leo that the first two children, his sons, were always going to be more powerful and more magically drawn than the others because they were the firstborn. Wyatt was prophesized for over thousands of years, it should have come as no surprise that he would be hunting demons and constantly in peril. While the second born, Chris had proved his strong and constant connection to his brother would cause him to follow in and try to surpass his magical older brother. Chris had proved before even his conception that he would be a handful and Leo was constantly amazed that Piper was surprised that the nineteen-year-old was growing into the young man they had meet so long ago. The future had changed, Chris was happier and Wyatt wasn't a demonically horrible ringleader torturing the world. But the boys were still the boys they were meant to be and Leo understood that without having to beat himself up over it. At least Chris didn't completely hate him, though as of late their relationship had taken a beating as Chris was regaining previous life memories through dreams and jerking situations. Leo Wyatt could have done with a past that wasn't his coming back to haunt him but in his world he was always ready for anything.

"The way that Chris is being secretive and shifty reminds me of that Chris that traveled back. You don't think he's hiding some big bad secret from us?" Phoebe suddenly asked bringing Leo out of his trance.

"No, I don't." Leo said resolutely. Three warm brown eyes looked at Leo in surprised, as usual, the sisters forgot he was in the room any longer.

"How can you be so sure?" Paige asked. Leo's right eyebrow shot up and he stared over at his wife, still as beautiful as the first day he saw her. Piper pushed back a strand of light gray hair out of her face.

"Because, we know our son. Chris would never keep something without good reason, even the old time traveling Chris had a good reason…" Piper sighed.

"He was just inexperienced at executing a large plan, much like he is now…" Leo muttered the last part of his statement.

"Are you suggesting I just let him run amuck?" Piper demanded crossing her arms.

"Leo has been suggesting that magical boys be magical boys for about twenty years." Phoebe laughed.

"Speaking of magical boys, I have to run to Henry's track meet. I promised him that I would go to his midweek one because his dad can't make it." Paige sighed looking down at her large black-faced watch. Paige winked at her family members and orbed out of the office.

Paige reappeared under the bleachers of a local high school, giggling to herself at the memories of high school and bleachers before checking her appearance in a compact mirror. Paige Mitchell-Matthews had aged gracefully, though she had never really stopped dying her hair since her early twenties and still constantly sucked on lollipops when Piper wasn't watching. She was wearing glasses now on a regular basis and her flare was apparent in the few dozen different frames in bright colors and loud embellishments. On this particular afternoon, Paige was wearing a tame aqua blue frame with her glasses that matches her side swoop sweater. She stepped out from under the bleachers and looked over to the track, filled with scrawny tall young men in ugly green and blue tank tops and shorts.

"Oh high school," Paige sighed to herself as she moved to climb the metal steps of the bleachers themselves. Her eyes scanned the field in search of a young man that looked like what she could only assume Henry, her husband, had looked like at seventeen. Pale skin that glowed like her own under the soft sun of the October sky and an attractive dark brown shaggymane caught her eye and she smiled.

"You got here just in time," A familiar voice comment from behind her as she settled.

"Hey Sam." Paige nodded without turning around to acknowledge a father that now looked just about her age. Sam and Paige had a strange and still rather strained relationship still, as the well-groomed white lighter took a step down and sat next to his daughter. A tension silence passed between the two adults as the race started and they focused on a blur of brown, green and white speed past them.

"Paige, the elders have been talking about the shadows of a rising new source." Sam finally sighed quietly. Paige nodded.

"Yeah, I know I talk to them too you know." She sighed sarcastically.

"Have you told Piper and Phoebe?" Sam asked.

"No. If you don't recall they aren't the biggest fans of anything the Elders tell me." Paige gritted her teeth.

"Do you have any leads?" Sam pushed again.

"No, but I think Chris might…" Paige finally turned to stare at Sam. Sam nodded.

"And have you told Piper that?" He asked, smiling because he knew the answer.

"Of course I haven't, I can't tell Piper that her baby is possibly following leads in the underworld to the rising new source. She will blow a gasket." Paige rolled her eyes looking back down at one of her babies.

"You know this new source isn't your battle?" Sam said sadly looking down at his grandson.

"Maybe if we can catch it before it's a problem for them?" Paige hoped.

"You don't even have any leads." Sam shook his head.

"Well that's because Chris is being all secretive about it, that boy and all his demon connections." Paige grumbled. Young Henry crossed the finishing line, just seconds after first causing Paige and Samuel to jump up and cheer for the teenager. Clapping Paige leaned over to her father.

"If you might want to keep a magical eye on Chris?" Paige asked.

"You want me to spy on your nephew and Piper's son?" Sam laughed. Paige waved excitedly back at her waving son, Henry Jr. was pointing to the locker room indicating to his waiting family members that he was going to clean up before coming up to them. Sam nodded and Henry Jr. jogged out of sight into a stone building locker room.

"He can sense when I'm near him, and if I tell Piper she'll just ground him and he might be the only useful lead I have…" Paige tried to explain.

"He can sense me too, that kid is a bundle of paranoia." Sam laughed.

"So you've tried?" Paige looked disappointed.

"We could find a different white lighter he doesn't recognize?" Sam offered.

"Yeah, that is a death wish with my name on it from Piper, Leo and Wyatt." Paige shook her head.

"What if you let Wyatt tail him? Those boys are very good at keeping tabs on each other." Sam suggested.

"Piper and Leo are going out of town this weekend, maybe I will let this play out and see what happens. You know that Chris gets more reckless when his mom and dad aren't around to make him feel guilty. Maybe I can set Wyatt out to distract Chris, so that Phoebe and I can follow them…" Paige started to plan. Sam though was focused on the track that had emptied out as their discussion had proceeded.

"Shh," Sam waved at his daughter. Paige growled at her father but not before noticing the goose bumps on his arm. Her eyes snapped down to the field, her heart rate increasing with every intake of breath.

In the locker room, Henry was picking up his track bag and throwing the sling over his shoulder. He clicked his locker shut and walked slowly out into the hallway. As his green soled sneakers hit the old stone flooring of the hallway, HJ saw a bundle with curling red hair fly across the hall and into another room. With an unknown energy, Henry straightened up and ran after the dark figures that chased the girl into the room.

The room was an electrical room that was dark, cold and eerily quiet as Henry stepped into it. Something like a dull buzz of a hearing test went off in his right ear, causing him to snap his head in that direction. His eyes caught sight of a slight movement and then in a blur of movements a cheap platinum blond clad in fake leather had slammed into a metal cabinet with a wriggling pale girl under her arm.

"Such a pretty little thing that we're going to have to kill. I like her hair color." The blond sneered. Another demon with short yellow hair that spiked up came sauntering up with a star shaped knife.

"Leave her alone!" Henry tilted his head and threw up his arms angrily sending both women flying back into the darkness. The girl crumpled to the ground, reminding Henry of a Raggedy Ann doll one of his sisters had years before. He scurried over to her, clapping his hands over her shoulders.

"Are you all right?" He asked her quickly.

"Leave me alone!" She screamed at him. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she was clutching her side that had just started to bleed.

"Look, I'm just trying to help…" Henry tried to explain when someone kicked him from behind.

"Get out of the way, witch." The first demon snarled at Henry. The young whitelighter kicked out his long leg, pushing the woman down again.

"Power of three spells are really useful when there's just one of me." Henry was grumbling as he flung his arm causing the platinum blond to slam into the gate.

"Cheap hair-dos, leather, trying to kill an innocent… way too many options of what kind of demon it is. And I'm not carrying any potions…" Henry counted on his fingers, listing options out loud. Twisting his hand in the air, mechanical coils flew off the walls and twisted around the oncoming demons. The two women were soon caught in the metals that Henry had set upon them like snakes. Paige and Sam burst into the electrical room, Paige magically starting to wrap the coils tightly around the demons. Henry didn't wait for his cue to grab the girl in the chaos of the room and orb out.

Appearing behind the bleachers, HJ had thought his grandfather might have followed him but it seemed that the young man was in for no luck today. The girl groaned softly at his feet and HJ snapped his attention back down to her, leaning down onto one knee to examine her injuries.

"My name is Henry Junior Mitchell. My family calls me HJ though cause my father's named Henry too." He chatted away as he lifted his hands steady over the girl's wounds. As the warm light dissolved and the color had come back to girl's cheeks, her amber eyes popped open.

"Are you glowing?" The girl blinked a few times.

"I think you just hit your head pretty badly." Henry commented helping the girl sit up.

"How are you feeling, does anything hurt?" Henry asked her as he examined her back making sure there were no other serious injuries to heal.

"My head hurts, I was kicked around a bit before you shown up. How exactly did you get us out of there?" The girl squinted her eyes at him suspiciously.

Gravel crackled behind them and HJ jumped up and shielded the girl with his body. Sam was jogging up to the two teenagers, an angry frown set upon his face.

"Why didn't you call us immediately?" Sam demanded of his grandson.

"Excuse me for just a second ok? Just stand up when you're ready, not too quickly because you hit your head hard at one point." HJ cautioned the girl and moved towards his grandfather and away from earshot of the redhead.

"When you see danger, you shouldn't just run in blindly like that. Especially not when your powerfully charmed mother and experience whitelighter grandfather are mere feet away." Sam chastised the young man.

"Gramps, I'm not a three-year-old pushing a fork into a socket, there was someone in danger and I found them and helped. Let's call it a family trait," Henry sighed watching his mother jog over to them as well. Paige ran up and glanced over at the red headed girl for only a second before jumping into the conversation with her father and son.

"Are you all right?" Paige demanded examining her son's arms and face carefully.

"They weren't after me." Henry pushed his mother's hands away.

"They were after me," The girl volunteered finally standing up. "I think they were gang girls, I must have pissed them off."

"Gang girls," Sam said slowly.

"I totally missed my ride because of them, though it's amazing I'm not more hurt…" The girl lifted up her shirt and studied the side of her torso curiously. Paige winked at her son before speaking.

"What's your name darling?" Paige asked.

"I'm Amelle, I'm sorry that I cause any trouble…" Amelle apologized.

"Oh no, no I'm glad that my son was around to help." Paige smiled. "Why don't you let Henry take you home? Make sure you get there all right?"

"Oh I wouldn't want to make myself a bother? I can just take the bus." Amelle shook her head.

"No, no. Don't be silly, I can take you home." Henry held out his arm for her to take in a gentleman fashion that would make his father proud. A delicate arm wrapped itself around his arm and he started to lead her towards the car.

"Don't forget to call Chris." Paige said cautiously warning Henry that if trouble arose to call for help.

"See you at home Mom," Henry nodded.

"And don't forget that I left the bag of tools for your school project in the bed of your truck." Sam smiled. Henry nodded understanding the hint about placing crystals around the girl to protect her home.

"Thanks for coming to the meet Sam." Henry winked and turned to walk to girl away from the adults.

"Was that the best idea?" Sam asked Paige.

"You think there was a better one?" Paige retorted back.

"Well…" Sam started.

"Those demons are not going to come after him, they saw me. They don't come after the kids when they know that a charmed one is already involved." Paige defended.

"Let's hope so. I'm going to check with the elders what's going on," Sam offered.

"And I'm going to check the book for how to protect the girl from attacks without having to tell her about magic." Paige nodded orbbing away.

HJ was walking across the empty parking lot still guiding along the dainty little redhead on his right arm and bouncing his gym bag off his left hip. Amelle was busy chatting about her daily life when suddenly her vibrant green eyes glittered with excitement.

"You're like my own personal hero! I'm a damsel in distress!" She giggled. HJ was caught completely off guard by the girlish squeal coming out of his walking partner. With two sisters and four female cousins, HJ was still not able to understand a single thing about female psyche and more importantly the need to squeak. As he pulled open the door of his fading blue truck, he gave her a confused look with a smile.

"Ok?"

"You are, of all the things I never thought I would be…" Amelle shook her head and jumped into the chair in a quick movement similar to a gymnast. As HJ started to close the door, her white fingers gripped the handle of the door and detained him.

"What is…?" Henry started.

"Someone is watching us." Amelle whispered anxiously. Henry pushed the door closed and turned to face the empty parking lot once more. He studied the emptiness but was unsuccessful of seeing anything.

"Must just be panicked." Henry grumbled as he strolled around his truck as he chucked his bag into the bed of the vehicle. A pair of dark eyes attached to the nearest light post watched the young man until he started driving away. Blinking the singular irises disappeared leaving the pole no different from before.

A glowing red outline of the two eyes appeared in the small space of Melinda Warren's once home. Moments later a pale face of a woman formed with her narrow eyes and black hair, she stood starkly at command near the door.

"I want a demon that carries knives!" Nemod was slamming his fist against the table.

"Any demon can carry knives." The seer yawned bored of the tantrum. A flame burst into the middle of the room on the wooden table flaming out into a man with yellow eyes and black fingernails.

"Pefesakhuefs?" The man grunted. Nemod frowned looking utterly lost by the grunting man.

"Pefesakhuefs are knife wielding demons, thought to be a type of deity by Egyptians because they protected one of the gates of the Domain of Osiris. Osiris was of course, one of the many kings of the underworld. The source at the time." Klea recited the knowledge in a bored manner. She was a much older demon than Nemod, by at least a couple of hundred years.

"Them! Can I get them?" Nemod asked greedily, like a two year old in a candy store the rising source was delighted with his ability to scrounge up demons from the depths of history and bowels of the earth. It was much like the underworld was waking from a dark and quiet slumber and it was doing so with a vengeance.

The yellow eyed man nodded and grunted again. Nemod clapped excitedly and conjured a map of the San Francisco area in front of him. He pointed to a spot on the map and pulled out an ancient beat-up pocket watch to check his timing.

"Why exactly can't I just take care of it?" Klea demanded now.

"You're the only one left of your kind, you need to recruit. But more importantly I want there to be no discernable pattern, our young friends cannot understand that the attacks for blood are in anyway connected to the rising of the new source." Nemod growled.

"Do they even know there is a rising for the new source?" Klea asked doubtful.

"One does." The seer smiled.

"Christopher knows that its happen, even without proof that boy is sure." Nemod laughed. Klea rolled her eyes but Nemod had moved on with his discussion with the demon with the yellow eyes.

Just miles from the isolated little cabin, on the college campus of Boston College in a stone building stood Patience Halliwell. Dressed in a seductively tight red shirt that made it almost possible for mortals to notice the red tint in her eyes. She pinched her cheeks to bring a rosy color to them and pulled own her black pencil skirt. Coop had disapproved of her outfit in the morning, but being a powerful little witch Patience had changed without much fight only to snap her fingers later to magically produce the outfit she preferred. A college boy passed behind her and let out a low whistle, Patience smiled as she took a deep breath and knocked on the door in front of her.

Dervin Rogers swung open the door, a look of resigned expectance colored his blue eyes. In the last few years Dervin had matured into a look of a rugged academic in his first two years of college. He was currently growing facial hair that Patience, in particular, hated. His hair was no longer a tangled mess of rock and roll, but rather a nice trimmed crew cut that really brought out his friendly eyes.

"Hey babe," He sighed looking at the most volatile constant in his life. Patience smiled brightly at him as she stretched out her hand to touch his prickly face. Her nose scrunched up in disgust and Dervin rolled his eyes.

"I know…" Dervin started but didn't get much further as Patience started to kiss him. Dervin wrapped his arm around her waist and slammed his front door shut. He naturally led the girl into his little nook of a dorm room before using all his self-control to push the girl away.

"How'd you get here?" He demanded. Patience sat on top of Dervin's bed and kicked her feet impatiently.

"You missed me." She smiled coyly. Dervin took a step back, he understood the way Patience could call upon her cupid powers to draw him in and make him forget all logical thought. Most of the time the young man never needed help losing himself in the presence of the most intoxicating girl he had ever meet, he mostly resented the hell out of her cupid powers.

"And that answers how you got here how?" Dervin crossed his arms tentatively willing her magic to stay away from him.

"I've learned how to transport like a cupid." Patience smiled again.

"Cupids can transport?" Dervin frowned trying to understand. Two years ago, Dervin would never have guessed the amount of magic that truly did exist in the world. He would have been even less likely to guess how much he would know about the world outside of most mortals reach.

"Like my dad, you remember how he sort of is swallowed by a bright light?" Patience explained. Dervin nodded and then frowned.

"And you could get here because you could sense that I missed you?" He asked.

"Cupids travel by the magic of love. In our case, a bit of a broken heart helped me get here on both ends." Patience carefully stood up and started walking towards Dervin again.

"Because you missed me too?" Dervin smiled at her now. Patience nodded. Dervin leaned against the desk in a false attempt to move away from the girl once more, but there was no use anymore. In moments, Patience had her legs wrapped around Dervin's torso and was making out with him. His emotions were mixed with her own and she knew that he had missed her and that he still loved her. Time was lost on the two young people, as Patience's cell phone started ringing repeatedly.

"That's the fourth time your phone has gone off." Dervin pulled his lips away from hers long enough to express his concern. He had been around long enough at this point to understand that the Halliwells didn't just call each other to chat.

"They are fine, if they needed something they would just show up." Patience said as she started trying to pull up Dervin's shirt.

"Look," Dervin grabbed her wrists and held her away from his body. "I do not want Wyatt, or Chris or God forbid your parents to just show up after you. Not again, we have that happen often enough."

"Fine, I will see what they want." Patience rolled her eyes. Still hanging on Dervin she reached into her back pocket and pulled out the phone. Tapping a few times on a screen she read through a few text messages, ignoring the little voice mail icon on the screen knowing that her mother had called demanding to know where she was.

"So?" Dervin asked her expectantly.

"They're fine." She snapped at him, pushing the phone back into her jeans and wrapping her arms around his neck once again.

"Are you sure?" He pressed.

"Apparently the girls want to have a party at the manor this weekend." Patience commented as she started dancing her fingers around Dervin's ear.

"Isn't your aunt Piper in New York this weekend?" Dervin frowned. Patience pulled herself back now and examined his face suspiciously.

"Yes…." She said slowly. "How do you know that?"

Dervin swung his arms around his own back and started trying to pry the girls' legs from his back. He was avoiding her gaze as he got himself out of her grasp.

"I might have talked to Chris yesterday." Dervin shrugged as he got her legs onto the ground safely.

"I liked it better when you two hated each other." Patience growled.

"I think I might have too, I feel more responsible to make you responsible when I'm friends with Chris." Dervin sighed moving over to his bed.

"So what is he making you keep an eye on me?" Patience demanded her eyes burning red as she crossed her arms.

"Not exactly. When I talked to him he thought we were broken up," Dervin popped his eyes open apologetically.

"We break up every week." Patience smiled at him lovingly.

"Yeah, about that…" Dervin let out a deep breath.

"Do you not love me?" Patience stopped him before he could finish his thought.

"Unfortunately I adore you." Dervin kicked back onto the bed. He ran his hand over his face already not wanting to have this conversation. "Are you going to do something for this party?"

"I didn't know it was happening." Patience said off handedly. She leaned back into the desk and kicked herself up to sit.

"Shouldn't you tell Chris what the girls are planning? I mean he will probably stop it?" Dervin warned.

"You and Chris worry to much." Patience was taking deep breaths and focusing on making herself levitate off the desk slightly.

"You don't worry enough. You and Henry are going to have to take care of the younger girls sooner than you might know. Chris and Wyatt never let anything bad happen to you." Dervin popped back up to give her a solid glare.

"I've never run around in the underworld and neither have the girls, so I don't think I have to much to worry about." Patience defended.

"Those girls were possessed by demons, and no one noticed." Dervin whispered. Patience's eyes flashed again and she glided through the air towards the boy.

"Not every little thing is going to be supernatural you know." Patience glared.

"No, some are just making sure that you take care of your family. Especially a family like yours," Dervin stood again. He cupped his hands around her shoulders, keeping her at arms length.

"Why do you worry about my family?" She demanded curiously.

"Because, like I said earlier I adore you. Your family is important to you, even if you don't know it." Dervin leaned his head down, resting his forehead onto hers.

"I don't know if I can transport again, I might have to call Chris." She sighed.

"I suspect he doesn't know you're here." Dervin smiled at her.

"He would blow a gasket." Patience laughed.

"Not like he didn't do some questionable things in high school, I know for a fact that he spearheaded senior ditch day." Dervin laughed.

"What else do you know about my perfect cousin?" Patience looked up at him. But as if on cue, Chris appeared in the center of the door room.

"How did you get here?" Chris demanded of his blushing cousin.

"At least I can't be blamed for this." Dervin laughed.

"I learned how to transport." Patience shrugged.

"I don't have time for this right now, HJ's in trouble…" Chris snatched Patience's elbow and the two disappeared into white orbs.

Henry Jr. had just placed the last crystal hidden near the stairs of the suburban home. Turning around to start his short walk back to his truck parked neatly in front of the house, he noticed a sinister looking dog peaking out from behind his back wheel. Henry squinted in the dimming sunlight of the afternoon, staring at the dog that was staring right at him.

"Are you hurt boy?" Henry said softly to the dog as he walked towards the back tire to check on the animal. Walking closer the trusting young man didn't notice the human feet underneath the truck, or even the gleaming black hair that was hanging behind the dog's brown face. It happened in mere seconds that Henry found himself on the ground, as a dog-faced humanoid was clawing at him. Henry struggled to pushed away from the attack but he found that every time he moved a piercing pain would strike him.

"Chris!" Henry grunted in a loud whisper, trying to move his chin to magically remove his attacker. But the Pefesakhuef had been informed of how this witch used his power, and before Henry had gathered his wits enough to move his chin the demon had run a knife across the defined flesh underneath his mouth. HJ screamed out in pain, as the blood started to flow freely from his face. With eyes shut tightly in agony, He missed the moment when the demon captured the dripping blood into a little blue glass vial.

The pressure of the demon was released from Henry's chest as a gust of magic came from somewhere to the fallen cousin's left.

"He's bleeding a lot!" Patience screamed.

"Freeze the demon Pat!" Chris commanded not letting his eyes rest upon the bloody face of Henry. Henry meanwhile remained on the floor, still writhing in pain but focusing on healing. Patience had thrown up her hands up too late, the dog-faced demon had disappeared almost immediately after Chris had blasted him off his victim.

"What the hell was that?" Patience demanded. Chris ignored her, pushing his hands underneath Henry's shoulders and helping the young man sit up.

"I'm going to call Wyatt…" Chris sighed trying to hide his grudging undertone.

"Hold on, maybe I can heal by myself." Henry argued.

"We're still in the middle of the street." Patience said nervously. Chris and Patience had orbed onto the scene unnoticed carefully in-between two fences. Chris had banked on his idea that most people didn't notice what wasn't happen two feet in front of their noses, as long as they appeared out of sight he knew they could walk onto the scene without being questioned. But Patience was right about the street. They had just fought a demon in the light of the setting sun in plain view of several houses. Chris ran his hand through his dark locks worried about the situation that hadn't even finished playing out quite yet.

"Wyatt," Chris whispered hopefully. Henry finished healing completely the cut on his face quickly turning into a faint scar of a pain caused long ago.

"I'm fine see," Henry ran his fingers across his chin to prove his point.

"Yeah, fine. Except that whole getting attacked bit." Chris helped the younger boy up to his feet.

"Now what do we do?" Patience demanded still looking to see if anyone had noticed them on the street yet. Wyatt had appeared underneath the truck, and pushed himself out as if he had been there for ages.

"You two into the truck. We'll take care of the exposure issue. Drive straight home, understood?" Wyatt pointed a finger at Patience.

"Got it," Patience smacked the older cousin's finger out of her face. Henry pulled out his keys but Chris swiped them instantly and handed them off to Patience. Wyatt grabbed hold of Henry's shoulders and started to inspect the younger boy before Henry could even form an argument.

"Anything still hurt?" Wyatt demanded forcefully. In Wyatt's experience his cousins and siblings lied about pain, showing they were still hurt somehow translated into showing weakness.

"I self heal." Henry rolled his eyes.

"Mostly," Wyatt nodded starring at the scar still faintly on Henry's chin.

"That's an odd place to have cut him." Chris commented.

"I think he knew that I control my power most effectively through my chin." Henry said in a quiet whisper.

"Not here." Wyatt hissed shaking his head before letting go of Henry's shoulders.

"Straight home." Chris repeated to Patience as the two younger cousins got into the truck. Wyatt leaned into Chris for a second and the brothers stood completely immersed in their own conversation. Seconds later, Patience and Henry watched through the rearview mirror as a ripple of magic waved through the street. The streetlights started to turn on, and warm lights from the houses poured onto the street unaware that anything out of the norm had happened only moments before. Wyatt and Chris had changed the fabric of the space, in a trick they had learned years prior as a coping mechanism for exposure. The brothers were as paranoid as the charmed sisters had been about being exposed because once a lesson was taught to the warren witches they tended to carry it with them.

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: REMEMBER TO LET ME KNOW WHAT YOU THINK SO FAR, I'M GOING TO BE TRYING TO GET OUT THE NEXT CHAPTER AROUND THIS TIME NEXT WEEK. THE RE-WRITES ARE MOSTLY DONE. THE NEXT CHAPTER IS STILL GOING TO HAVE THE PARTY THOUGH I'M NOT SURE I'M GOING TO USE ANY OF THE WRITE UP FROM BEFORE FOR IT. FOR THE EASIEST UPDATES AND PREVIEWS OF NEWEST CHAPTERS FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER, ASIDE FROM THAT HOPE YOU ARE ALL ENJOYING THE NEW CHAPTERS ADN THE NEWEST STORY! _


	5. Laughter Penetrates the Silence

**Laughter Penetrates the Silence**

_Set the Fire to the Third Bar: Snow Patrol_

**December 2012 **

A miniature white table filled with tiny porcelain teacups and plastic replicas of food sat in the corner near the stairs of the Halliwell manor. Melinda, Patricia and Pandora sat dressed in oversized fancy dresses, strings of fake jewels and large hats. Melinda and Tricia sat like casually normal little girls in some of Piper's discarded old clothing. While Dora, being inclined on being different sat in a black dress with an oversized pointing witch hat.

Melinda poured an imaginary cup of tea for Patricia as Pandora playfully started cutting up the plastic food. Clanking of the baby china was all that was heard until from somewhere behind the nearby closet door the loud blasting of trumpets boomed. The old wooden door swung open and the trumpets got louder, as Patience Halliwell stood clad in an absurdly fancy purple princess gown.

"Presenting Princess Patience of the kingdom of Halliwell!" Patience announced.

"Welcome princess, we are pleased you are joining our tea party." Melinda stood tugging on her blue dress up. Shuffling along in heels that were too big for her five-year-old feet, Melinda pulled out the remaining empty chair for the newest guest. Dora and Tricia started serving their royal guest, as the imaginary play continued in a peaceful tranquility. Seconds later, two little creatures jumped up from behind the couch.

Ugly green faces stormed the little tea party, with yellowing teeth dripping with blood and bodies hidden under black karate styled robes. The little girls exploded in terrified screaming, never once noticing the goblins had blue and green eyes. China shattered and little chairs fell over in the chaos of the attack. Piper had come running into the foyer of the manor, a tape measure around her neck and needles sticking out of the side of her shirt but her hands were up and ready for a fight. The problem was that it seemed these little creatures were immune to her freezing power and just as she blew up her daughter's favorite teapot, Phoebe's voice overtook the chaos.

"Boys, stop it." Phoebe stepped into the foyer bouncing her baby on her hip. The two goblins stopped, hung their heads and fidgeted with guilt. The little girls of the room still screaming threw themselves at the sisters. Phoebe petted the braids of her oldest daughter calmly her eyes still fixed on the little devils in front of her.

"Masks now," Piper commanded holding out a hand expectantly as she alternated between rubbing Tricia and Melinda's backs. Wyatt and Chris removed the ugly green masks that had been hiding their amused boyish grins.

"I thought they were real monsters. Wyatt and Chris said real monsters exist." Patience was sobbing into Phoebe's knee.

"The two of you, upstairs in your own rooms." Piper pointed up the stairs. Wyatt opened his mouth to object but Chris kicked his older brother, warning him it was a futile fight. The two boys trudged up the stairs grudgingly.

"Do demons exist mommy?" Melinda was asking.

"Yes, sweetheart but mommy and your aunts would never let any of them hurt you." Piper explained.

"Would you let them hurt Wyatt and Chris?" Tricia asked.

"No, of course not." Phoebe sighed. As Penelope started wailing Phoebe silently cursed her overly informed nephews for shocking the innocence out of the girls.

**October 6**

Standing in the little shade available on the sunny campus, Paige Mitchell stood leaning like a 1940s movie star with her head down and a large white hat casting a shadow over her face and the top of her double-breasted green dress. A few young adults passing by with backpacks and portable snacks stared curiously over at the youngest charmed one. Paige was tapping her fingers impatiently at her thigh, waiting for her oldest nephew and namesake to come out of his lecture hall. As the clock somewhere above struck four in the afternoon, a sea of students started swarming past the witch until in a flash of an eye she shot out her arm.

"Hey," Wyatt reproached the floating arm angrily.

"Hey is for horses," Paige retorted quickly.

"Aunt Paige?" Wyatt looked over at her confused.

"I'm glad to see at least one of you boys is going to classes…" Paige smiled at him. Wyatt shrugged, shifting his notebook into his left arm so that he might offer his arm to his aunt.

"Are you here to talk about my pigheaded little brother then?" Wyatt sighed knowing that he had been expecting this.

"And to buy you a cup of coffee," Paige laughed taking the young man's arm without hesitation. Paige was pleased that her nephews and own son had picked up the old fashioned manners of her husband and brothers-in-law. Wyatt maneuvered them out of the crowd of students and towards the closest coffee cart.

"You look like a movie star," The girl at the coffee cart sighed at Paige immediately.

"Well thank you," Paige laughed. Wyatt shook his head, his aunt Paige always one to garner attention. He walked over to one of the empty metal tables, setting down his backpack and kicking up his brown flip-flops onto the extra chair. As Paige grabbed two cups of ice blended drinks and scanned the area to find her nephew. She was surprised to notice the young man she had watched grow up. Wyatt had developed confidence that now seeped from his aura, but aside from the distinct difference of how he carried himself there was also just how much he had grown. Paige was amazed to notice how tan the young man was and his hair seemed to have become a more golden highlight than before. Wyatt Halliwell was starting to look less like Leo and much more like his own version of a southern California surfer.

"Here you go, don't tell your mother I bought you this." Paige commented setting a drink in front of him.

"It's not like when you use to give me cookies before dinner," Wyatt laughed. Paige was guilty of constantly spoiling the young Halliwell brothers' dinner by slipping them cookies and other snacks when they had been much younger.

"Nevertheless, I doubt that Piper would approve of you drinking coffee."

"I'm twenty years old." Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"Try to tell your mom that." Paige grumbled. Wyatt chuckled quietly for a second, letting his aunt get comfortable in her surroundings while he waited for her to start talking. Wyatt knew that Paige would never have come to his campus without good reason, she could have just picked up the phone but whatever she wanted to talk to him about needed a face-to-face reaction.

"So what's going on aunt Paige?" Wyatt finally asked.

"I need you to not freak out, you and your brother and mother have a tendency to freak out." Paige warned. Wyatt nodded tentatively, deciding not to waste anytime on a family trait he thought they all shared, including Paige.

"The Elders believe there might be a new source rising." Paige whispered.

"And you guys want help figuring it out?" Wyatt asked confused.

"Well Phoebe and I are going after the demons that attacked Amelle and Henry on Wednesday. We might be able to find something, but I think that your brother might be following the trail of the new source." Paige sighed.

"I'm sorry you what?" Wyatt almost choked on his drink.

"All the demon hunting and secretive outings, I think Chris might be trying to follow the rising source." Paige started tapping her nails anxiously on the table.

"He would never do something so stupid alone." Wyatt shook his head. The corner of Paige's mouth sucked into her face, creating a critical strained look.

"I think he might," Paige said softly.

"And you're telling me this because you want me to kill him?" Wyatt asked annoyed at his aunt. "Why didn't you tell mom? She could at least keep him from getting hurt."

"The problem is I think Chris might be the only one with a lead at all…" Paige bit her bottom lip in a guilty bout.

"You want me to find out what he knows?" Wyatt realized.

"And you're mom and dad are out of town this weekend, so I was worried…" Paige started again.

"That he would be even more reckless than usual. Yeah, that's his usual M.O." Wyatt scratched his forehead in frustration. Paige nodded and looked down at her wrist.

"Phoebe is waiting for me, but you will look after him?"

"Don't I always," Wyatt nodding at his aunt. Paige leaned down and kissed the boy on the top of his golden locks before walking away to orb out of sight. Wyatt pulled out his cell phone and started texting as he walked along the path to his dorm. Not paying attention to where he was walking, Wyatt walked right into someone.

"Watch where you're going, Halliwell." Bianca smacked Wyatt in the shoulder playfully.

"Sorry," Wyatt grumbled putting his phone back into his shorts pocket.

"Great job on that paper," Bianca smiled. Wyatt grinned and nodded at the compliment.

"I would have never been able to write it so well without your help." Wyatt waved at Bianca to emphasis his own point.

"Maybe you should take me out to celebrate?" Bianca suggested batting her eyelashes. Wyatt laughed at her subtle suggestion but didn't respond immediately. There was no denying that the two were attracted to each other, but Wyatt couldn't get pass the issue of Bianca being a phoenix witch.

"Still too good for me then?" Bianca stated trying to not sound resentful. A skateboarder nearby tripped and the board came flying at the two young people. Wyatt's quick reaction was to grab Bianca around the waist and pull her around his body. Still clutching her waist, even after the danger was removed Wyatt caught himself enjoying being so close to the witch he had been spending most of his days with for the last few weeks.

"Would 10 be too late?" Wyatt sighed as he put her down.

"Babysitting?" Bianca mocked. Wyatt shrugged sheepishly. It was relaxing that Bianca understood his responsibilities. The odd comfort of not having to explain himself, or lie was something new and unfamiliar to Wyatt.

"10 it is, try not to be late?" She winked at him and walked away careful to avoid the clumsy skateboarder. Wyatt beamed as he keep walking to his dorm, ignoring the nagging feeling in his stomach that a date with Bianca was the last thing he needed in his life. The oldest charmed child traveled into his building unaware that his brother was not the only family member seeking trouble for the evening.

Rubber soles squeaked angrily against the wooden floor of the manor's foyer. Melinda was chasing around her taller, faster cousin Henry. Patience lounged bored against the banister with Dora at her feet.

"This isn't a good idea," Henry was shouting.

"Oh stop fighting it, we're going to win." Dora yelled at her older brother. Henry stumbled, the residue of his younger clumsiness rising up as he knocked into the entry table and knocked over a glass. Melinda automatically threw up her hands, freezing the glass before it shattered onto the ground. Henry picked it up but instantly released it and the car keys he had been keeping from Melinda as he grasped at his head in agonizing pain. The glass shattered everywhere before Melinda could freeze it once again, not that her attention was focused anywhere but her cousin.

"HJ?" Patience's voice was an octave higher than usual as she hurried down the stairs. Henry stood back up slowly, the color of his face drained and his brown eyes watering.

"What's wrong?" Dora asked in a small scared voice.

"A piercing pain," Henry choked a second, crouching down again suddenly. Melinda started wringing her hands anxiously, as Patience and Dora tried to pull Henry back up.

"Sorry," Henry croaked.

"What hurts?" Dora asked him.

"It's like a piercing noise, a headache?" Henry questioned his own assumption. The young man pressed two fingers into his temple as he stated the answer. Melinda through the conservatory and pushed the door of the kitchen open. She was back in moments holding two aspirins and a glass of water. Henry accepted the items with shaking hands.

"This is a bad idea," He stated simply after he swallowed the medication.

"Give it a rest HJ," Patience rolled her eyes.

"You want to come to the party don't you?" Melinda rested her hands on her hips as she sized up the boy.

"I don't think it's a good idea, does Chris know?" HJ asked though he knew the answer.

"Chris is going to be busy tonight." Melinda shrugged.

"Are you sure?" Patience asked.

"Positive." Dora nodded.

"My brother is demon hunting tonight, I know because he told me so. That's why he asked Patience and Dora to stay here tonight, so that I might not be alone." Melinda gave Henry a devious smile.

"You really think this is wise?" HJ asked of Patience.

"I think we're only young once." Patience laughed.

"We're going to go get drinks." Dora pushed Melinda towards the front door before her brother could regain his wits about him.

"And you'll help me get Dervin here?" Patience swung her arm around Henry lovingly.

"I really don't know…" HJ shook his head.

"Come on!" Patience whined as Melinda and Dora hurried out the door without a second glance back. The two girls almost ran to the parked Jeep in front of the house, Melinda jumping into the driver's seat nervously as if expecting someone to run out and stop her. As the youngest sibling, Melinda rarely got to drive the car her brothers had been sharing for the last four years.

"You're sure that Chris isn't just going to show up?" Dora asked suddenly as the car pulled onto the street.

"Are you having second thoughts? This was your idea." Melinda snapped.

"No, but Chris would ruin everything." Dora sighed, clutching her legs into her chest defensively.

"I'm sure he's going to be busy tonight." Melinda shrugged. Dora glanced over suspiciously at her cousin. Melinda let her long black hair curtain over her face, as she kept her hands nervously clutched at the ten and two of the steering wheel.

"What did you do?" Dora asked slowly uncurling. Melinda popped her lips a habit she had picked up from her brothers long ago, it was something they did when they were very guilty of something.

"I saw that Chris needed a particular plant for a potion, a plant that only sprouts under the half moon at midnight in the jungles of the Andes mountains. We had exactly one sprout of it yesterday, but after my vision I might have chopped it up under a pretense of thinking it was something else completely." Melinda mumbled her explanation.

"Why Melinda Prudence Halliwell, I didn't think you had it in you to be so deceitful." Dora's eyes were wide.

"If my brother insists on keeping me out of the loop, he can just deal with my taking it out on his potion ingredients. I mean mom wasn't very pleased and I think dad sensed I was being resentful about something because I am usually pretty good at potions, but they let me be about it. Chris had to pretend he didn't mind at all, because if he threw a tantrum he would have had to explain to mom why it was so important." Melinda shrugged.

"So he'll be in South America tonight." Dora nodded her approval. Melinda flipped her hair over her shoulder and smiled nervously uncomfortable with her own actions.

"Now it's time to make us old enough to buy our party drinks." Dora pulled a folded napkin from the cup of her bra.

"Why did you put the spell there?" Melinda laughed.

"You never know when I might be forced to empty my pockets. Mom and Dad are suspicious sometimes." Dora smiled.

"Maybe because you use to steal powerful magical objects from the manor." Melinda rolled her eyes.

"Whatever, people should learn to let go of the past." Dora giggled. "Ready?"

Melinda shrugged and nodded, not wanting to voice her childish objections to using magic so recklessly. None of the cousins had yet to be magically punished for using magic for their own selfish reasons, so they thought themselves untouchable outside of their own mothers. Wyatt and Chris had been punished several times, their magic being taken away at least once every few months throughout their high school experiences. But never had anything truly magically backfired on the two oldest, which made it even less likely that anything had happened to the younger cousins. Personal gain consequences were but old wives tales there mothers told to the young witch clan.

"I call upon the ancient powers, to mask us now and for the future hour. Age us prematurely but only momentarily." Pandora recited carefully before she waved her hand in front of Melinda and then in front of herself. The two girls changed in seconds, their make-up becoming lighter along with their hairstyles changing. Melinda's hair was tightly wrapped into a bun and there were faint lines around her eyes, while she had developed more fully. Dora was sporting dark cherry red hair that was clutched into a long ponytail, and she was wearing black sporty glasses. Their clothing had changed and both girls had matured about five years, instantly as they parked in front of a little liquor store on the corner of a busy street.

The electric sounding chime went off in the dusty liquor store as the two young women wandered in confidently. In an air of maturity and experience the two girls grabbed a handful of bottles and placed them on the counter. Melinda was surprised by her forcefulness while Dora scurried around trying to decide between different quantities and varieties of beer. The whole process didn't take as long as it seemed, the girls were decisive and quick and stood in front of the cashier in a matter of minutes. The moment of confrontation gave rise to their nerves as they pushed forward their selections.

"Can I see your ID?" A balding man with yellowing teeth held out a hand to Pandora. Melinda twitched her wrist nervously making the small fruit fly near her waist fly around in stop motion.

"Of course," Pandora flipped her cherry red hair with one hand as she nonchalantly pulled out an ID from her pocket. She flipped over the ID into the grungy hand and smiled sweetly.

"So nice to know I can still get carded." Pandora chatted with her nervously looking cousin. Melinda Halliwell's hands were shaking out of the direct gaze of the man at the counter. Her nervous energy was making a fly buzz around in stop motion, though that was going unnoticed by Dora.

"Twenty-two, just barely." The man chuckled handing the card back to its owner. He tapped at the register in front of him a few times before grunting the total.

"Seventy-Five Dollars and sixteen cents."

Melinda fumbled into her purse producing a wad of cash and pushing it towards the man. The balding gentlemen gave her a funny glance but took the money without a word. He took his precious time pulling out the change and then bagging the bottles of liquor on the counter. As he placed the last bottle in a large brown paper bag, Melinda snapped her hand impatiently causing the man to freeze.

"Mels." Dora complained.

"I really don't think this is a good idea." Melinda shook her head.

"I think you should unfreeze him and just stop worrying about it." Dora grumbled through her teeth in annoyance. Dora tipped her head slightly signaling to Melinda that a camera was recording the entire proceeding, so Melinda gently twisted her wrist making the man drop the bottle with a slight crash but no damage.

"Thanks." Dora smiled at him and clutched two bags into her chest. Melinda frowned but did the same, still leaving a bag on the counter. The dark eyes of the nervous cousin looked expectantly at the balding man but he had moved on to be interested in the small grainy picture of a television on the counter. Obviously the liquor store didn't hire its employees because of their proper etiquette.

Pandora placed the bags on the ground near the car and ran back into the store to grab the last bag. Melinda popped open the trunk of the old Jeep. The girls couldn't get away from the little dingy liquor store fast enough. Once Melinda pulled the car onto the freeway she finally turned down the music that Dora was bobbing to next to her.

"I still don't know about this Dora," Melinda said for the hundredth time.

"Mels. How many times do any of our parents leave town?" Dora rolled her head against her seat in perfect sync with her eye roll.

"Never, but…" Melinda started.

"And how many times have you ever done anything wrong?" Dora proceeded, ignoring Melinda's protesting look.

"Well, basically never but…" Melinda forehead creased.

"And how many times did Wyatt and Chris break rules?" Dora smiled.

"Pretty much every day." Melinda laughed.

"And they always got caught. That's the difference between us and the Halliwell brothers, we're not going to get caught." Dora winked at her cousin.

"Dora, you're grounded about as much as Chris and Wyatt ever were." Melinda shook her head. "Besides, they never really broke laws when they were getting into trouble. If anything they were always about fighting for the greater good."

"Oh things can change." Dora flipped her hair as she pulled down the visor mirror. "What do you think about going this cherry red?"

"I think you're crazy." Melinda responded.

It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon in San Francisco. The traffic was light on the freeway, as many of the locals were taking advantage of the sunshine. Piper and Leo were away on a conference for small business owners and wouldn't be back until late Sunday night. Leaving the manor in the hands of her demon-hunting obsessive son and late blooming rebelling daughter. With some coaxing from the wayward Pandora Mitchell, Melinda had been convinced that it was the perfect weekend to create their social legacy by throwing a party. Patience and Patricia had been easily convinced and Henry, was not as strong willed as Chris and Wyatt and much more prone to being intimated by the females in his family.

"How long will this spell last?" Melinda asked suddenly, as she jumped a bit at her own slightly older reflection.

"No idea, momentarily might be just about an hour though?" Dora shrugged just as Melinda turned onto Prescott Street. The youngest of Piper's children frowned and adjusted the rearview mirror, staring at the backseat where she thought she had just seen a pair of dark eyes.

"Mels, don't worry about it. We'll be back to our normal awesome selves by the party." Dora snapped her fingers in the girl's face. Shaking away the feeling of being watched Melinda pulled up into the driveway of the Manor.

"Yeah, yeah. Hopefully." Melinda winked at Dora as she jumped out of the car.

The two teenage girls hid their bags of alcohol in the garage. Neither charmed cousin noticing the pair of floating, dark eyes that was watching them from the shadows of the garage itself.

Somewhere below layers of earth and rock, in the darkness of abandoned and once familiar paths stood Phoebe and Paige. Phoebe leaned against the wall, twitching her left foot a bit impatiently at the adrenaline rush of being in the underworld. Paige had her arm hugging a piece of rock, as she searched the darkness for signs of life. The two charmed ones had scried for the location of the demons, women that resembled foes from years before.

"You're sure they were demonatrix demons?" Phoebe asked impatiently as she gasped at the flashing visions of old memories. A blond wig and tacky leather outfits, a pregnant aggravated Piper and flames.

"Yeah I remember them too." Paige replied sarcastically recognizing that her sister had a vision even without looking at her.

"Chris didn't see them?" Phoebe whispered hopeful.

"No." Paige affirmed.

"Did you even actually scry Paige, there is nothing here." Phoebe moved away from the wall, as if walking through a lit memory.

"This is where they were before, I thought maybe we could get a read." Paige mumbled running her fingers along a dusty replica of the stain glass windows of the attic she had grown up in.

"Maybe we should get Chris to teach us how to use our cell phones like he does for the scrying." Phoebe suggested as gravel crackled underneath her heels.

"He's never been good at sharing, even as a baby." Paige snapped.

"Paige, He's always shared better than Wyatt. He's just evasive of sharing things that get him in trouble, that's exactly how you were when you first started as a witch." Phoebe was patting against the walls trying to get a read on any demonic activity.

"So we can blame his faults on Piper." Paige laughed.

"I think we should use a spell to try to find them? If I remember correctly, these demons are hired guns for others. Which definitely there is a big bad somewhere…" Phoebe sighed walking towards Paige with her arm outstretched.

"Speaking of that, Chris is hiding something about the big bag…" Paige commented. Phoebe had always had more luck with getting confessions out of Chris than Paige, Paige like Piper and Leo was occasionally much harder on the second oldest brother because of his past self. Though that might also be the reason that Phoebe had such a soft spot for the boy.

"He's hiding tons of things these days, if I tell you what I suspect you have to promise not to tell Piper?" Phoebe implored.

"Should we really be keeping secrets from Piper? That never works well for us…" Paige grumbled.

"Fine. Let's just find some demons." Phoebe snapped her fingers hurriedly. Paige rolled her eyes and mumbled a spell that caused the two women to disappear and reappear in another set of tunnels. Cleaned off bones were littering the floor and bright flames were dancing from several raging fires.

"So what exactly is Chris hiding now?" Paige whispered.

"Shouldn't we be more worried about where exactly we landed?" Phoebe demanded, levitating over a large pile of bones.

"Well now I won't stop thinking about it." Paige sighed orbbing bones out of her path as she scanned the area.

"I'm pretty sure that he isn't actually enrolled in school. Not to mention that Coop has been hinting that both boys have girlfriends…" Phoebe didn't finish her thought as something furry came flying out towards her. Paige outstretched her hands orbbing bones silently at Phoebe's attacker.

"These don't look like demonatrix demons PAIGE!" Phoebe shouted as she kicked a dog in the gut. More dogs came crawling out nooks of the cave and Paige fought to keep them away from her, while Phoebe was kicking up a storm neither sister avoiding the bones any longer.

"I feel like we're out of tracking practice…" Paige laughed.

"You think?" Phoebe responded sarcastically as she lost her footing and slammed into the ground, crushing bones beneath her.

"Orb us out of here Paige," Phoebe begged and Paige without taking hold of her sister waved her arms and the two disappeared into white orbs.

The rays of the sun danced off the red colors of the San Francisco bridge, creating the illusion of a bright sunset when watching it from high atop a bridge tower. Chris had his back leaning against the tower and his legs stretched out across the rope as Verity sat in his lap comfortably.

"Wyatt will be here in three minutes and twenty three seconds." Verity nuzzled her nose into the young man's knee.

"You're sure he won't feel the need to stay with me after we visit the demonic bar?" Chris asked.

"Positive as you are charmed." Verity giggled.

"And you haven't seen anything to do with the new source?" Chris asked again.

"No," Verity sighed annoyed.

"I promise we'll have a real breakfast date tomorrow." Chris wrapped his arms around the girl, brushing his fingers through the black tips of her hair.

"What about a midnight date under the stars? You know how much I love the stars?" Verity kissed Chris hand softly.

"I can try? I don't know how long this expedition for the flower in South America is going to take." Chris sighed.

"You could tell Wyatt about me and what you're doing and then he would go and you could stay." Verity smiled wickedly, flipping around like an experienced gymnast so that her eyes could stare into Chris' green eyes. She leaned forward careful placing her arms on Chris' torso.

"I don't think that's a good idea, and neither do you." Chris groaned.

"Wyatt's coming," Verity whispered as she kissed Chris lightly before vanishing into the city's fog. Chris moved to sit on the main part of the tower, remembering how much it bothered Wyatt when he unnecessarily took risks by sitting out on the rope. Chris orbed into a sitting position, letting his legs dangle from over the edge of the metal and as he appeared the shadow he'd been in most of his life materialized over him.

"At least you can still follow directions." Wyatt grumbled as he settled down next to his brother. Chris pushed his hair back behind his ears as he nodded carefully focusing on the tiny cars below.

"I haven't been avoiding you, or trying to keep you out of the loop." Chris stated resentful.

"I know little brother," Wyatt smacked his open palm over the younger boy's back. The brothers sat in silence as the last bit of the sun dropped down over the city's skyline.

The grandfather clock struck seven, as Henry and Dervin were carrying the couch across the living room floor. Patience was hiding various breakables of the Halliwell family in drawers and closets.

"This is a bad idea, and let me tell you why." Dervin was huffing.

"I've tried this…" Henry explained again.

"What if something evil decides to attack the Manor?" Dervin demanded.

"Almost nothing is stupid enough to attack the Manor ever anymore." Patience yawned.

"Besides, I put up sage and apples around just in case to promote goodness." Dora commented from the sunroom where she was arranging snacks.

"And what if you're dad shows up?" Dervin demanded as he dropped the couch with a thump.

"He won't," Patience rolled her eyes. "Dad is taking Pen and Prim to a movie and dinner, it's father daughter date night…"

"And you got out of that how?" Melinda laughed.

"Darling Chris asked for my help, Dad and Mom have a soft spot for darling dearest cousin Christopher." Patience winked at Melinda.

"When are you two going to get young again exactly?" Henry crossed his arms defensively as he stared at Melinda and Dora. They were still older versions of themselves and HJ was beginning to get worried.

"Soon, and if nothing I will just say a quick spell to fix it before the party." Dora shrugged giving her brother a carefree grin.

"We're going to be social legacies after tonight, not even my brothers ever threw a party this big." Melinda clapped.

" And when they find out that you people did, I feel like I'm going to get blamed." Dervin stated angrily.

"Oh sweetheart, you're so cute when you are afraid of Wyatt and Chris." Patience slipped her hands over Dervin's broad shoulders. Before Dervin could bring up another concern Patience started to kiss the anxious young man. Dora rolled her eyes as she exchange glances with Melinda, the younger cousins sharing a pained expression over their emotionally charged half cupid family member.

Suddenly Henry clutched his stomach in pain and heaved down into the ground. Patience pushed herself away from Dervin and ran to Henry's side immediately.

"What's wrong?" She demanded.

"Someone's calling my name." Henry choked a bit.

"Someone…" He took a deep breath and closed his eyes tight. Suddenly he reached out and grabbed Patience and the two orbed away without another word.

"Don't you love it when that happens? It's like we're not even useful." Melinda pouted.

"It's not about not trusting you, you know." Dervin sighed running his hand through his short red hair.

"What's it about then?" Dora rested her hands on her hips, in a maternal fashion of reproaching.

"They want to protect you, protect you like Wyatt and Chris protected them. You do and will do the same with Penelope and Primrose." Dervin walked over to the snacks and snatched up a strawberry.

"Besides, aren't you two currently under some spell? Doesn't that affect how your magic works?" Dervin asked pointedly. The tall young man's blue eyes pierced into the two young women that were only momentarily older than him.

"Sometimes I think you know too much for your own good." Dora stuck her tongue out at him.

"I wonder what it means for you," Melinda whispered as Dora started tugging on her to follow up the stairs.

"We're going to fix this little spell mishap. Try not to eat all the snacks and maybe pick some good music?" Dora directed as the two girls jogged beyond his sight. Dervin stared around the historical layout of the Halliwell Manor, with all of Piper's nice furniture pushed up against the walls and deliberated for a moment.

"This is something normal teenagers do, just ignore the magic." He mumbled to himself softly. At his own words, Patience reappeared with HJ and another unfamiliar girl.

"How did you do that?" The girl shrieked excitedly taking in her surroundings. Dervin smacked his hand into his face, covering his eyes in frustration.

"I know for a fact that you aren't suppose to be doing that!" Dervin growled a bit.

"I'm almost positive that Amelle is a charge of mine." HJ sighed.

"A charge? Like you have to pay for me? Seriously though how did we get here?" Amelle demanded again stomping her foot on the ground.

"We were worried that she might be trouble, so we thought what better place to keep her safe for the night then at our party!" Patience winked at her boyfriend.

"I don't understand any of this." Amelle shook her head allowing her bright red curls to dance around her face.

"Neither do I and believe me you don't want to." Dervin scratched behind his ear as Patience started kissing his neck.

"They're dating?" Amelle smiled like a girl privy to the first morsel of gossip.

"You would think so," Henry sighed appreciative that the girl was distracted at the moment from how they arrived at the manor.

"So are you like my guardian angel?" Amelle now demanded forcefully as she turned her piercing green eyes at him.

"That lasted." He grumbled. "You could say that."

"And this is a party for George Washington High School crowd?" She asked delighted again by the social aspect of her surroundings.

"That is correct," Patience responded as she paused her make out session.

"Well if I had known I was coming to a party, I would have prepared." Amelle danced around Henry to stare at her reflection in one of the pictures above the stairs.

"You called me earlier because?" HJ waved his hand in front of the girl to get her attention.

"I didn't call for you." Amelle shook her head. "I was worried, someone was following me. I thought about you…."

"She has to be a charge, otherwise why would you feel that?" Patience pulled away from Dervin now, standing in front of him carefully pulling his arms up and around her shoulders.

"But no one told me I was getting a charge? I need to talk to mom…" HJ whipped out his cell phone.

A series of electronic wind chimes sounded off the walls of the underworld. Paige fumbled around her before pressing ignore on her cell phone.

"Do you ever wonder if someone magical works for the coverage people at AT&T?" Paige wondered.

"I don't know. What I do know is I'm growing tired of this Paige," Phoebe sighed clutching a little potion bottle in her hand defensively.

"I understand Phoebe, I thought we would have found them by now. Maybe we are rusty." Paige pushed the tip of her boot into the dirt beneath her foot.

"I can only take so much blood and guts. And this stupid green slime is never going to come out of this blouse Paige, and not once have we even seen a girl in tacky leather…" Phoebe complained loudly as she trying to pick the crusting green off her white blouse.

"You shouldn't be wearing white down into the underworld anyway Phoebe." Paige commented off handedly as she noticed something glittering on the ground.

"Don't we usually just wait to get attacked, isn't that how we work? I mean we're not even sure that the Demonatrixs were actually after Henry, didn't we think they were after the girl?" Phoebe asked still focusing only on her blouse.

"But HJ was attacked by another demon, something that Chris and Patience said looked like a dog. I think there might be a connection." Paige sighed bending down to study the glittering closer.

"Why do you think that Paige?" Phoebe suddenly perked up and spun around to stare intently at her younger sister.

"The Elders think that there might be a new rising source," Paige whispered.

"PAIGE!" Phoebe shouted loudly.

"Keep it down, we're in demon town and apparently they aren't as extinct as we thought they were…" Paige snapped her fingers at her sister as she stared reached out and picked up a tiny circular star spur that looked familiar.

"How can you keep that from me? How can you keep that from Piper? If there is a new source, that means that the demons are organizing again, that the Triad is gaining power…" Phoebe started pacing and muttering to herself. Remembering what it meant for there to be a Source of All Evil in the world made the usually poised charmed one shiver.

"This looks familiar…" Paige muttered before straightening up to stare at Phoebe. "I think Chris has been tracking the activity, for that matter so do the Elders."

"That's why you've been worried about him, why didn't you say anything?" Phoebe squinted at her sister before her jaw dropped open.

"He's the only one who knows anything about it at all, isn't he?"

"Looks like our nephew really is all Halliwell," Paige nodded and shrugged. She held up the little spur to show Phoebe just as the two women were caught in a furious storm of the star spurs being thrown right at them.

"Now we're being attacked, perfect!" Phoebe shouted. The two charmed ones hit the ground simultaneously causing dirt to billow up above them.

Swinging his sneaker around over the edge of the San Francisco Golden Gate Bridge didn't even seem out of the ordinary to Wyatt Halliwell. Unlike having to practice older brother patience and understanding, that task was proving much more unusual to an older brother that had grown up being the enforcer and idol to his siblings. Wyatt was lying across the beam of the tower, starring up at the twinkling stars patiently waiting for Chris to be ready to explain.

"Anytime now would be great bro…" Wyatt finally grumbled. Chris laughed as he had been expecting Wyatt's impatience to win out in the end. Chris was still sitting up, starring out at the city watching flickering images of the present vision and false memories from a past that wasn't his own.

"I suspect that there might be a new rising demon…" Chris started carefully.

"A new source." Wyatt didn't hesitate.

"Why do they trust you more than they trust me?" Chris turned his head to stare at his brother. Wyatt pushed himself up onto his elbows and studied his brother, a young man on the brink of his twenties who currently looked like a lost six year old.

"They don't necessarily." Wyatt replied slowly thinking over his thoughts before responding. "Aunt Paige came to see me earlier, she mentioned that the Elders thought that there might be a new rising Source and she suspected that might be what you've been up to…"

"She wanted you to baby sit me?" Chris' shoulders tensed as he crossed his arms protectively and pulled his legs in defensively.

"She wanted me to see what you were up to and what you knew, because you haven't been exactly sharing with them either." Wyatt reacted to the defensive nature of his brother by pulling up completely and kicking his feet into Chris' space.

"Or with me." Wyatt added angrily.

"I have been trying to figure out what exactly has been going on, I can't share what I don't know…" Chris spat defiantly.

"The source is…" Wyatt started.

"A very big bad." Chris nodded.

"That's going to be after us? Not Mom and the aunts." Wyatt nodded letting out a low whistle.

"I still am not exactly sure what's happening, but I have a plan to find out more." Chris jumped to his feet now and held out a hand to his older brother.

"What is the plan?" Wyatt asked.

"Barhopping…" Chris smiled deviously as he orbed himself and Wyatt away from the bridge and into the dark night.

A pair of bright headlights flicked off suddenly as a beat up station wagon came to a halt in front of the Halliwell Manor. Bobby Jenson stepped out of a car that was older then he was, straightened his shirt and walked around the dimmed headlights to the open the passenger door. Patricia Mitchell waited for her escort to help her from her seat, as she discreetly pinched her white cheeks a bit to make sure they were adequately colored when the street light hit her face. Tricia was wearing just a touch of make-up and a modest but fashionable wrap around sky blue dress.

"It looks like it's going to be a wild party," Bobby commented as he opened the door. The manor was bright with lights from all its bay windows on the first floor and cars were beginning to line up and down the street as teenagers piled into the old Victorian house.

"The social event of the year," Tricia laughed quoting her twin sister.

"We don't have to go in if you don't want to…" Bobby said tentatively as he held her hand in his.

"And be made fun of forever because I didn't attend the biggest party of the year that my own sister and cousin put on?" Tricia shook her head vigorously.

"You shouldn't care what other people think." Bobby laughed at her. The two were strolling up to the front steps of the house, ignoring the rushing youth around them.

"Says the president of student body, who is constantly concerned with his own image." Tricia poked her elbow into his side a bit. Bobby nodded.

"This will make us look more accessible to the student body, I was starting to hear from my pollsters that you in particular were coming off as a stuck up goody two shoes." Bobby nodded keeping his tone serious.

"Just because I don't like to be in detention every afternoon like Dora doesn't mean that I…" Tricia stopped mid-sentence, her light brown eyes glazing over as she tripped on the even ground under her feet.

_Crashing glass, blood dripping on Aunt Piper's favorite rug. Screaming and running and the grandfather clock started to strike the new hour. _

"Tricia? Patricia?" Bobby shook the girl in his arms gently.

"Sorry, I just dazed out for a second." Tricia giggled nervously.

"Yeah, maybe you shouldn't do that. I know that I'm stunningly handsome and it's near impossible to stay focused when you're around me but still…" Bobby winked at her.

"Maybe I was checking out Hank Finkel over there…" Tricia pointed at a nearby football player that was strolling up. The milder twin never once noticed the supernatural activity behind her, as a light seemed to possess two of the party goers.

"Sure you were," Bobby nodded stretching out his hand to ring the doorbell just as the front door swung open. Pandora stood holding open the door and glaring at her sister, intently.

"What did…?" Dora started. Hank pushed past Bobby and strolled prompting a loud and rambunctious greeting from other team members that were in the sunroom. Tricia muttered something under her breath and gave a little wave, as the football players came storming into the foyer and Hank turned instantly and planted a kiss on Dora.

"Looks like a great party sis," Tricia commented before she squeezed past the hooting boys, pulling Bobby along with her.

"Why is Hank Finkel kissing my sister?" Henry Jr. started taking angry steps towards the front door but Dervin pulled him back by the neck of his shirt.

"Not a good idea to start on the over protective bit, you'll tire before the end of the night." Dervin shook his head. "Besides shouldn't you be keeping more of an eye on that little red head that you are supposedly guarding?"

Dervin pointed to Amelle, the petite photographer was chatting it up near the drink tables with a red cup in her hand merrily flirting with a baseball player that Henry recognized from Chris' old team.

"No one answered me, I really don't know what I'm suppose to do with her or if she's even my charge." Henry sighed.

"Have a drink and enjoy yourself then mate, you might as well." Dervin laughed as he popped a chip into his mouth and headed towards the music again.

Paige and Phoebe orbed into the middle of the Mitchell kitchen, both covered in dirt and all sorts of demonic blood and guts. Phoebe smacked Paige in the shoulder as soon as she was completely materialized.

"What is that for?" Paige rubbed her shoulder.

"Let's go down and find the demons, it will be a quick in and out." Phoebe mimicked.

"So I overestimated how easy it was going to be…" Paige shrugged.

"You think? We didn't even actually get the demons we were looking for and now I'm going to have to throw away this blouse." Phoebe whined. Henry walked into the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee and a newspaper.

"I don't know why you wore something like that to go demon hunting anyway Phoebe? I would think after as many years that you've been a witch that you would know better." Henry commented setting his mug down on the counter.

"You two deserve each other." Phoebe spat at her brother-in-law.

"Someone's cranky." Paige pointed in an overt gesture at her sister.

"Coffee?" Henry offered his mug up to his sister-in-law.

"No, I just need to shower and see Coop and my girls." Phoebe closed her eyes and tensed her shoulders up. Paige rolled her eyes and waved her hand over her sister helping her to orb to her own apartment.

"No luck with the demons?" Henry asked his wife. Henry Mitchell still had his sling on over a white t-shirt, which Paige suspected had been more of a show for Tricia's date than actually work related.

"Did you scare Bobby?" Paige laughed running her fingers over the gun holster on her husband.

"I don't mind that boy, he's respectable and polite." Henry shrugged.

"But that doesn't stop you from making sure he knows that you carry a gun?" Paige laughed.

"I was a teenage boy once too Paige, it's good for him to know I carry a gun." Henry winked at her.

"You're lucky one of the girls lets you meet her boyfriends." Paige moved out of the kitchen down the hall.

"What does that mean?" Henry demanded following her down a hallway that was lined with photographs of the family through the years.

"That means that Dora is probably seeing a boy you would hate." Paige shrugged.

"She's not dating anyone, you don't think she's dating anyone? Do you know something I don't?" Henry asked crossing his arms as he leaned in the doorframe as Paige started peeling off her dirty clothing.

"I think I'm going to shower," Paige shrugged.

"That's nice, drive your loving husband crazy with images of some bad boy that his little girl is dating." Henry clicked his tongue in annoyance.

"She's not that little and I'm just saying that I never brought any of my high school boyfriends home," Paige laughed.

"You like to pretend you were trouble…" Henry shrugged nonchalantly.

"Or you like to pretend I wasn't." Paige winked as she slipped into the bathroom and turned on the hot water letting the steam overtake the enter room before she stepped into the drizzling water.

It was raining, an odd magically produced rain as Wyatt and Chris stood in front of a falling apart dark looking southern style plantation. The windows were broken and the paint was chipping and the plantation looked as if a strong wind could collapse it into a heap. The strange part wasn't the house itself though, but its location in the middle dark demon cave.

"Just follow me lead!" Chris shouted over the rain pounding down on the brothers. Wyatt clenched his fists in annoyance, as he saw no other choice but to follow his brother through the door of the old house. Just as Wyatt was stepping through the threshold he saw a pearly white figure walked through the wall and chuckle.

"Someone's not in Kansas anymore."

The boys entered the house, that didn't look so much like a house inside as an extended old bar. It was dusty and grimly and the air itself was heavy and thick enough to obscure vision. Wyatt soon realized that they were in a bar indeed, but not just any bar a demon bar.

"How'd you…" Wyatt started but Chris slammed his foot into his brother's instantly shutting him up. Wyatt's eyes watered a second as he pressed his lips together tightly. The twice blessed noticed the dark eyes following him and Chris across the moaning floor of the bar and he protectively remained close to his younger brother. Chris seemed unaware of the danger around them as he plowed onwards to an unseen destination.

Finally Chris stopped and Wyatt almost collided with him. A hunched over demon that looked ancient, with a fresh layer of dirt on him sat in front of a steaming drink. The demon was on the last stool of the bar and looked as if he hadn't moved in decades. Chris fished around his sweatshirt for a few minutes as Wyatt started twitching nervously as more eyes focused on the brothers, the two figures that weren't like the others in the bar. After strenuous moments, Chris pulled out a bag of something and politely placed it in front of the demon.

"I was told you might be interested in doing business." Chris commented nonchalantly.

"I remember you two." The demon croaked, fixated on the bag in front of him. Wyatt frowned as he tried to understand the situation in front of him.

"We don't know you." Wyatt spat.

"No I suppose you don't…" The demon nodded.

"Are you interested in our transaction?" Chris repeated his request.

"No." The demon shook his head.

"This here is pure fresh grade cat-nip." Chris swung the bag in front of the demon baiting him.

"We'd like to trade it for some information." Wyatt added firmly. Chris smiled at his brother and Wyatt smiled back. He did not understand at all why they were baiting a demon with catnip but he was positive nonetheless that Chris knew what he was doing.

"I don't need to be helping witches and white lighters." The demon grunted.

"How do you…?" Wyatt started the angry rising up again as he suspected that Chris might have been here before alone.

"I can smell users of good magic from 100 paces away. You two have a stench that carried from the moment you arrived outside. I don't need to be seen helping out you two not here anyway…" The demon was watching the catnip that Chris was still waving around in front of his face.

"If you were to move us to a room upstairs, that might be different…" The suggestion wasn't even complete before Chris had the three of them waved into a dingy room that was darker, damper and nastier than the bar had been below.

"What the hell is going on Chris?" Wyatt demanded.

"It's true than that the young Halliwell brother is a bit of a renegade." The demon smiled a creepy knowing grin.

"This is Benzimar." Chris pointed at the demon.

"But you can call me Benji, if we're going to be doing business and everything." The demon outstretched his hands.

"Benji," Chris ignored the demon for a second. "According to some of my contacts, is a demon snitch that works for cat nip."

"The cat nip is for the jinx a witch put on me about 500 years ago, just when I was a little over a 100 years old." Benji explained.

"That makes you about 600 years old?" Wyatt stared at the wrinkled dusty demon and didn't doubt the truth of the statement.

"Yes it does. The twice blessed one can do math," Benji gave Wyatt a crooked smile.

"Look we're looking for information can you help us or not?" Chris demanded.

"Depends on what you're looking for." Benji shrugged.

"The source of all evil." Wyatt commented softly but confidently.

"There isn't one." Benji shook his head. Chris stuffed the cat nip back into his jacket.

"Well we're wasting our time then." He nodded at Wyatt.

"I didn't say there won't be one… why don't you bring that nip back out again?" The demon pleaded.

"Why don't you tell us what we want to know Benji?" Wyatt demanded crossing his arms as his confidence started growing.

"There is a demon that is hoping to become the new source. I don't know when and I have no idea how it happens, only the elite demons get to attend those ceremonies and the last one happened over twenty years ago and involved your aunt…" Benji's mouth hung open a bit as drool began to dribble out of the corner of his mouth.

"Cole and Phoebe." Chris nodded.

"She was seductively pretty your aunt, had one of the larger followings in the underworld. Being gorgeous and the queen and the mother of a powerful dark child that would grow to be the greatest source of all time…" Benji licked his lips at the memory.

"What dark child?" Wyatt asked surprised.

"The one that you replaced twice blessed one," Benji winked.

"That's not what we're looking for, I, I mean we need information on the new source. Now, otherwise no catnip." Chris quickly inserted his demanded before Wyatt could focus too much on the conversation that was brewing.

"Yes, yes. Like I said, I don't know when or how. I do know that it's an old friend of yours, a demon that has a peculiar interest in you. Though Halliwells are like crack to powerful demons, once you've had a taste you always want more. That's what they all say, that's what they've always said." Benji laughed.

"Is that all you know?" Chris demanded.

"Oh I know plenty more about you, young Christopher…" Benji glared at the annoyed young man. Chris dropped the bag of catnip in the demon's lap. Benji didn't wait to untie the bag and start inhaling the catnip. Wyatt coughed uncomfortable with the disgusting scene of the demon devouring the prize. Chris gagged a bit before regaining his focus and grabbing Wyatt and departing from the scene.

A flickering of the green light on the microwave turned 9:49 to 9:50 almost magically to anyone that didn't understand technology. Pandora was giggling uncontrollably as she sucked up liquor through a hot pink straw. A boy in a faded blue hat had his arms around her waist and was helping her hold a large kitchen knife in her left and steadying a watermelon with her right hand.

"Carefully," The boy hissed quietly, menacingly almost. Dora swayed in his arms a bit, unable to concentrate as the heat rose to her cheeks and she started giggling again.

"I don't know what's wrong with me, maybe I should get Patience to do this…" Dora's eyelids drooped a bit.

"No, I can help you." The boy nudged Dora behind the ear, lovingly. He wrapped his hand around her delicate wrist and helped her lift the knife over the shaking melon. A second later the knife came down against neatly.

"See we can do it." The boy encouraged. Dora nodded smiling like a fool as he helped her lift her hand with the knife once more. In a flash of a moment her right hand slipped to be right underneath the knife as it came down and it sliced open her hand between her thumb and finger. Dora started gushing blood before she dropped the knife and started howling in pain.

"It's ok, hold on." The boy flipped her around immediately, his hand still forcefully grasped around Dora's bleeding hand. Dora was screaming and crying like a toddler, her eyes squeezed shut in pain so not once did she notice how the boy allowed her blood to drip into a tiny glass vial. She didn't open her light brown eyes again until her hand was under running water.

"It hurts!" She cried.

"You sound like a baby." The boy laughed as he noticed the young witches hand start to shrink before his very eyes. The kitchen door pushed open as Dervin came storming in with Patience wrapped around his torso and her arms around his neck. Dora sniffled a cry again and Dervin dropped Patience.

"Dora?" Patience hiccupped.

"She cut her hand…" The boy suggested quietly as he slipped out of the kitchen.

"You shouldn't be cutting things when you're drunk," Dervin commented staring at the girl's still bleeding hand. As she wiped it clean, Dervin noticed it was shrinking.

"Patience," He said weary of the situation. Patience munching on the watermelon on the counter completely dazed. Something crashed from outside the kitchen and Dervin looked worriedly at the two intoxicated cousins in front of him and held out his hands.

"Stay here," He begged as he ran into the conservatory. Patricia had crashed into a little glass end table near one of the wicker couches and was bleeding from her left hand. Dervin pushed forward but Bobby was already at the girl's side.

"What happened?" Dervin demanded of the younger boy.

"She just tripped over someone, it's ok. It was just an accident, I can clean up the wound." Bobby dismissed Dervin as he helped Patricia up from the ground. Dervin frowned noticing the blood, dripping from the left hand trying to figure out why the situation struck him as so odd but there wasn't any time to focus as a fight broke out in the main living room.

Wyatt and Chris were once again on the high beams of the Golden Gate Bridge. Wyatt was starring at his watch impatiently.

"How the hell did you know about that place?" Wyatt was demanding.

"Javin told me about it, it's called The Apple. It's a demon bar that has existed since the beginning of time." Chris shrugged.

"And going down there without telling me what we were doing was a brilliant idea because…" Wyatt asked glancing at his watch again.

"Do you have somewhere to go Wy?" Chris asked trying to hide his satisfied smile.

"I was going to meet these friends…" Wyatt explained hurriedly.

"So a girl?" Chris nodded.

"Just some friends, they can wait…" Wyatt huffed annoyed.

"How about we do this later?" Chris suggested waving his hand in the space between them.

"Because if I let you get away without explaining today, you won't ever tell me." Wyatt took a step towards Chris.

"And what will you tell the girl when you can't show up? That you were busy in San Francisco bullying your little brother?" Chris mocked.

"It's no big deal." Wyatt shrugged.

"I'll make you a deal, I will promise to explain all my plans later this week. If I don't you can have my Willie Mays baseball card." Chris held out his hand to seal the deal with his older brother. Wyatt stared suspiciously at Chris outstretched hand and squinted his blue eyes.

"You love that card." Wyatt said slowly. "Dad got it for you on your sixth birthday, after taking us to the Giants game. It belonged to grandpa Christopher Wyatt. There's no way you would give me that card, unless you're…"

"Unless I know I'm not going to break my promise." Chris snatched up Wyatt's hand to force the handshake.

"Or you're trying…" Wyatt started but Chris had winked and orbed away. "…get rid of me." Wyatt stared at his watch it was now exactly 10 o'clock.

* * *

AUTHOR'S NOTE: _Sorry this chapter took a few days longer, as I mentioned on twitter my computer suddenly ran out of memory which was super fun. Anyway, promise it was worth the wait... or at least I think so. Let me know what you think! Next chapter should be up within the next week, we're up to the newer source stuff so it's not going to be as quick as it has been lately. Remember if you follow me on twitter: Laces716, you'll know when I'm writing, posting up chapters and get sneak peaks at upcoming chapters. _


	6. Suppose to Set An Example

**Suppose to Set an Example **

_Toy Soldiers: Eminem_

**September 2013**

A childishly shaking hand rested on the marble wall of the endless hallway of Magic School catching strands of black hair underneath a sweaty palm. It a stolen moment of freedom and unrestricted adulthood, two children stood nervously starring at each other.

Somewhere further down the hall a door slammed shut and a fighting scuffle echoed off the walls. An aggravated professor with white hair was struggling to pull a rebellious firecracker of a student.

Wyatt panicked pressed his youthful inexperienced lips onto the giggling lip glossed lips in front of him.

"Let me go! I didn't do nothing!" Chris' hollered indignantly as he pushed his sneakers into the marble resulting in a sound that made Wyatt and his hiding date to pressed their hands to their ears.

"It's your brother," The little girl whispered hoping that they would remain hidden. Wyatt nodded grimacing at the sound and at the prospect of getting caught. The already aggravated professor stretched out a hand and clutched Wyatt's shoulder in seconds.

"Mr. Halliwell, of course you would be out here causing trouble. It seems you boys like to try to outdo each other." The older gentleman chastised.

"Wyatt?" Chris stopped struggled and craned his little body around to examine what exactly his brother was doing in the hallway. Chris noticed the girl immediately, before even acknowledging his family member.

"Idina?" Chris questioned.

"Miss James, back to your classroom before I bring you to the headmasters office as well." The grumpy professor stated sternly. Idina James stood frozen for a second not daring to the look at the angry adult but instead focusing an apologetic look at Wyatt. Fidgeting for half a second with the tips of her heavy black hair, Idina stepped forward and pecked Wyatt Halliwell on the check before running off.

The professor ignored the exchange, as if completely blind to the personal forming moment of his troublesome charge, and pushed the brothers forward still. Chris stared his green eyes wide and a taunting smile starting to form on his round face.

"What were you doing with Idina James outside of class Wy?" Chris whispered. But the older brother didn't have an opportunity to answer before both boys found themselves in the familiar surroundings of their father's office.

Leo Wyatt was sitting at his desk absorbed in the stacks of paperwork on his desk mumbling to himself about advance potion making classes. The headmaster did not notice the arrivals in his office until the angry professor coughed.

"Headmaster Wyatt," He growled.

"Professor Green," Leo didn't look up immediately. "What happened with Chris this time?"

Now the headmaster lifted his head and the amusement in his blue eyes was shadowed by the frown that formed when he found not one of his children but two standing in front of him.

"Boys, you know your mother is going to be very upset about this." He sighed.

**October 7**

Carefully working under the light of the half moon, Chris' nimbly fingers cut and prune a little plant that emitted a soft reddish glow until its stem was snapped. An old faded red plastic container sat open and ready for the plants. A chilly breeze swished past the working young man and he effortlessly tugged on the strings of his sweatshirt, pulling his hood closer to his face and maintaining his warmth.

Chris was laboring to breathe, not use to the high altitude of the Andes mountains but he pushed forward finally pulling up four flowers but the roots. He cleaned them off meticulously before lovingly placing them in the plastic rectangle box he had brought along. Giving the mountainside a quick scan to ensure that he had collected all of the magical herb in sight before he pressed the faded red top over the plants, sealing his prize safely away. Chris pushed himself up to his feet and tucked the Tupperware into his jacket as he admired the nature around him.

Chris stood starring at the lush green in the soft pale light of the moon, smiling at the sight he knew not many people ever saw in life. Contrary to his image, Chris Halliwell actually enjoyed many moments such as these in his life. As the middle child of a charmed one and a powerful witch part elder, Chris knew he was blessed and cursed with every breath. He often joked that he was reckless because he enjoyed life, not because he valued it any less than his siblings or cousins. He was vocally quieter than Wyatt and more about taken action than Melinda. But out of the three Halliwell siblings, Chris was the only one that practiced any sort of mediation often times on top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Chris gained his clarity from being able to see far beyond his reach, far beyond his current world or issue or demon. Sucking in the crisp fresh air of the mountains, Chris shut his eyes for just a millisecond trying to inscribe the feeling of being in this place at this moment before he left.

A breeze blew past him and suddenly he felt another presence, a familiar soft presence next to him.

"Verity, what are you…" Chris whispered not wanting to disturb the peace of nature around him.

"Danger, it's coming everywhere." Verity's voice shook with a deadly omen.

Darkness swallowed the manor suddenly, as the power seemed to go out of the large house that was bustling with the noise of a party spinning out of control. Four fights had broken out in the last three hours, and two of the bathrooms were occupied with puking teenagers. Screaming erupted when the lights went out and instead of attempting to find the source of the problem an intoxicated Patience snapped her fingers and the lights went back on. Dervin pulled her fingers tightly into his hand keeping her from throwing around any more unrestricted magic. HJ was dancing with a flirtatious sophomore from his Speech class while trying to watch Amelle who was also dancing with a sophomore that looked suspicious to the young whitelighter. Dora was crawling underneath the snack table, clutching a bowl of pretzels as the girl was unknowingly shrinking again. Melinda appeared at the top of the stairs, having changed into a tighter shirt, as the girl seemed to be growing out of her clothing by the second though in her drunken state she was hardly noticing.

As the lights returned flickering, Melinda lost her balance at the top of the stairs and came tumbling down. Bobby and Tricia were standing at the bottom of the stairs, talking and leaning against the banister. Bobby reacted to the falling Melinda quickly, causing Tricia to react as well and the young couple caught the aging girl before she hit the ground of the first level. But as Tricia clutched the white arm of Melinda Halliwell her eyes glazed over again, as Melinda started to scream.

Dervin swung his arms around Patience protectively and instantly at the high-pitched shriek silenced the party.

"Freeze everyone!" Tricia shouted as her eyes started fluttering. Dervin let go of Patience's hands and Melinda became lucid for a moment and threw up her hands at the same time as Patience and the entire room frozen except for the cousins and two teenagers that slipped out of the house unnoticed.

Wyatt slurped at an empty soda cup as he listened to Bianca explain why she only ate pizza without cheese. Bianca threw her used napkin onto the now empty pizza pan in the middle of the table and jumped off her stool decisively communicating that she wanted to leave the crowded college all night pizza place.

"But you get that its weird not to like one of the main ingredients of pizza on your pizza right?" Wyatt insisted as he stood up and strolled out into the night with Bianca.

"Everyone has a weird food preference. I am sure that even you perfect Wyatt Halliwell has one…" Bianca mocked as she stole his empty cup and threw it at a nearby trashcan.

"Maybe I do." Wyatt laughed.

"I shared mine!" Bianca pointed out.

"I didn't ask you too, you wanted pizza. You set yourself up for that." Wyatt shrugged.

"Oh come on," Bianca slipped her hand into Wyatt's hand carefully and leaned her head into his shoulder.

"I have one that people do think is strange," Wyatt conceded.

"And…" Bianca nudged.

"I loved peanut butter on everything when I was five. Mom had to buy a new jar every week because I would eat peanut butter with every meal. Now I grew out of the phase, except that I still put peanut butter on my burgers." Wyatt laughed remembering his childhood food. Bianca giggled, sticking out her tongue in mock disgust but she didn't mock him. The two walked along a quiet path back into campus, enjoying each other's company without any conversation.

"Damn it." Wyatt groaned suddenly as he clutched his stomach. Bianca sighed knowingly.

"The wonders of being charmed." She nodded. "Who's in trouble?"

"I think," Wyatt started as he groaned again. "All of them?"

"You'd better go then…" Bianca encouraged.

"Sorry," Wyatt straightened back up and leaned in to kiss Bianca but orbed away before making contact.

"I could help…" Bianca sighed at the empty spot in front her. It was a quiet proposal, as Bianca knew that the twice-blessed young man would never bring her along to help his family.

A crackling laugh broke the tensed silence of the mountains, a laugh that sounded frightfully familiar to Chris. A large animal came charging at Chris right side before he turned all the way around and sent him flying into the side of a rock. Verity let out a girlish squeak and evaporated as quickly as she had appeared.

"Not so fast Christopher," The chilling voice chided. A cold metal plunged into Chris' leg in a swift movement. Chris writhed in agonizing pain as he tried to fight his way away from the demon that was causing him harm.

"This should make this easier." Nemod said and suddenly Chris was pinned to the ground and unable to move.

"Wyatt?" Chris whispered.

"Oh he's busy…" Nemod laughed again as another sharp object pierced into Chris arm. Chris screamed in pain sending a painful shudder through not only the demon but also his family members miles away.

The windows of the manor shattered, all at once, into the house and against the masses of teenagers. Wyatt appeared in the center of the foyer, hitting his shoulders against still framed dancing couples. Abnormally large dogs came clambering through the empty window frames and Wyatt stood unable to gauge the situation he had stumbled into.

"The innocents, get the people out of the house Wyatt!" Henry shouted before he wrapped his arms around Amelle and dissolved towards the attic. Wyatt scooped the air in front of him in a one motion and embraced the room with a deep breath and the entire population of the party dissolved and Wyatt concentrated on ensuring they arrived safely to their homes.

Tricia was pushing ice from her hands at the attacking dogs, as she kicked at the sleeping Melinda. Melinda had curled up and fallen asleep on the wooden floor of the foyer. Patience was holding on to the wall with one hand and trying to freeze the oncoming dogs with the other. Henry reappeared standing protective in front of the snack table where Dora was crying out of sight.

"Come out here and help us Dora," Henry begged as he tried to focus enough to send a few of the dogs flying back out of the windows. Wyatt was about to send a sonic boom through the house when he clutched his stomach again in pain.

"Henry, I need your help!" Wyatt shouted over the chaos. HJ bent down and grabbed his sister's leg and pulled her out from under the table only to suddenly realize that Dora was now a crying seven-year-old.

"Of course," Henry threw his hands up as Dora started crawling back under the table. He sprinted over to Wyatt's side and Wyatt automatically clutched his hand.

"Think about Chris," Wyatt commanded. The two white lighters took a deep breath and tightly shut their eyes as they focused on Chris.

Seconds later a bleeding half coconscious paling Chris appeared on the ground in front of Wyatt and Henry. The demon dogs were gaining access to the center of the house, the foyer where Patience and Patricia were trying to fight them off bravely. Dora though still crying was shooting out blasts of fire beneath the dogs to keep them away from her and her family. Melinda snapped awake suddenly and threw her hands up again freezing the dogs instantly around them.

"Damn it, Chris." Wyatt choked at the sight of his younger brother.

"What are these?" Henry shouted as Wyatt placed his hands over his bleeding brother letting the warm light emit over his wounds.

"Hellhounds." Paige and Phoebe announced in unison appearing at the front door. Paige had her hair up in curlers and was wearing a pair of bright pink bunny slippers, while Phoebe was in her at home tracksuit with a light layer of her night cream on her face.

"We're going to need your help," Paige rested her hand on Wyatt's shoulder and Phoebe looked worriedly down at the moaning Chris.

"Just repeat after us Wyatt," Phoebe whispered.

"From below hounds, return to where you're found. A dark mate for a dark fate, leave us here and go back there." Phoebe and Paige chanted once before Wyatt's shaky voice joined them. Wyatt repeated the words strongly, as everyone else in the chaos repeated the words in small whispers so the entire power of the Halliwell family wished the demons gone from their home.

The hellhounds burst into flames, leaving behind the destruction of their arrival. Chris struggled to get up from the ground and Wyatt forcefully pushed him back down.

"You're still bleeding you idiot." Wyatt commented through gritted teeth. A sobbing tiny Dora sprinted from table sanctuary and clung to her mother's leg.

"It's ok baby," Paige said automatically soothing the little girl. It wasn't until she noticed Phoebe's strange frown that Paige looked down and discovered her teenage daughter was no longer fifteen going on twenty.

"Pandora?" Paige questioned confused.

"That's her mom." HJ nodded sadly but before he could explain his sister's predicament any further Amelle came running down the stairs.

"Are they gone?" She cried as she threw herself into Henry's arms. HJ patted the girl on the back unsure of what else to do for her hysterics.

"Yeah, calm down Amelle." He whispered.

"Who the hell is that?" Chris spat still struggling against his brother's arm.

"How did she get here?" Paige demanded.

"She called for me hours ago, because something was following her…" Henry started.

"Those big scary dogs that were just here, they were following me." Amelle explained prying herself away from Henry but still clutching his hand tightly.

"They were after you then?" Phoebe nodded trying to piece the situation together.

"She called for you?" Wyatt frowned.

Patricia and Patience worked together to help Melinda sit steadily on the bottom steps of the stairs. As the three sat and stared at their destroyed party, Tricia was holding Bobby Jensen's watch tightly while Patience pulled Dervin's jacket closed as Melinda tried to keep her eyes open.

"A charge? You got a charge?" Chris found his strength again and pushed Wyatt forcefully off of him. The grandfather clock started striking one, Melinda leaned over her own knees and started puking.

"I want to go home," Tricia jumped away from her cousin and the steps of the manor.

"I don't even know what to do," Phoebe frowned as she picked up a red party cup filled with pink contents.

"Why does Melinda look older than me?" Wyatt asked the room, as he had rushed over to his sister's side to pull the hair out of her face.

"Obviously Dora and Mels cast a spell, to be able to buy the booze. Duh, Wyatt." Chris stated sarcastically as he took a sip from a full bottle of beer sitting on the floor next to the front door. Chris strolled waved his hand and a bucket came flying out from the kitchen that he placed in front of his little sister.

"Personal gain no-no Mels." Chris cracked a smile at Melinda's pale and sweaty face before she started heaving again.

"You suck." Melinda managed to whisper to her brother in between choking up all the contents of her stomach.

"I want to go home." Tricia started repeating the phrase, in a soft and demanding tone.

"All right, I'm going to take Amelle home and set some crystals and I will take Tricia home before she has a nervous breakdown." Paige sighed looking over at her perfectly intact and correct aged twin, Tricia was rocking on the balls of her feet and refusing to look anywhere but her hands where she was still holding a wristwatch.

"NO! MOMMY DON'T LEAVE!" Pandora wailed suddenly kicking her feet around Paige's left leg.

"I have a headache." Paige pressed her fingers against her temples.

"Just go home with all three of them, Dora might wake up her old self again and if not we'll figure out the spell in the morning. HJ if you don't mind taking Patience home?" Phoebe suggested.

"And then coming straight home yourself." Paige inserted, holding out her hand Amelle.

"Can HJ take me home?" Amelle begged still clutching the boy's hand. Paige shrugged too tired to truly care at this point and with one thump of her left leg, she put her arm on Tricia and the three Mitchell women disappeared.

"Go on with you then Henry, remember to set a few crystals though I don't think anyone will try to attack her again tonight." Phoebe shook her head.

"Also take Patience home, I don't know what your role was in this young lady but you can rest assured that we're going to have a long talk about everything while you never leave the house again." Phoebe lectured for a moment.

"None of this was my idea…" Patience started.

"I don't want to hear it." Phoebe snapped annoyed. HJ beckoned his cousin with his outstretched fingers. Patience stood up from her spot near the still puking Melinda, Chris gave her a disappointed look but she leaned towards her cousin anyway.

"Glad you didn't die." Patience whispered giving him a small peck on the cheek before skipping to HJ. The three adult children of Piper Halliwell and Leo Wyatt were left, Melinda still puking with either brother sitting on her left and right side.

"Your mom is going to kill all three of you." Phoebe sighed.

"I didn't do anything!" Wyatt defended himself.

"And I had no idea they were throwing a party…" Chris shook his head.

"It…wasn't…their…fault…" Melinda tried to explain.

"All right, all right. Wyatt get her upstairs to a bathroom. Once she's finished, help her clean up, give her an aspirin and get her to bed?" Phoebe instructed. Wyatt nodded tightly wrapping his arms around Melinda. Chris was left alone on the steps, his black shirt torn in places that still had drying blood on his white skin.

"You help me clean up this mess." Phoebe pointed at her nephew. Chris popped his lips and looked around the foyer and the living room and the sunroom and shrugged.

"Let the object of objection become but a dream, As I cause the seen to be unseen." Chris recited lazily and the manor was cleaned of the traces of the party immediately. Though the furniture was still pushed up against the walls maintaining the empty spaces and Chris shrugged.

"Magic can't fix everything." He stated knowingly. Phoebe crossed her arms as she glared at her nephew.

"Christopher," She sighed. Chris crossed his arms, mimicking his aunt stubbornly and matching her glare with a bored stared.

"Phoebe?" He asked.

"Melinda is upstairs in the body of a twenty two year old and Pandora is clinging to Paige in the body of a seven year old. Don't you think maybe for a second you kids should stop using magic so selfishly?" Phoebe demanded tapping her foot.

"Paige has been saying that spell daily since the day that I was born… actually maybe even the year before I was born." Chris mouth twisted at the recognized memory.

"Yeah, I guess she was…" Phoebe stepped forward towards her nephew and put her arm on his bicep.

"What were you doing tonight that you missed that your cousins were throwing a wild party?" She asked pointedly.

"Wyatt and I were doing something…" Chris started.

"I know when you're lying to me, I have plenty of experience in that particular habit of yours." Phoebe sighed.

"Come on aunt Phoebe. It's been a long night and I should help Wyatt with Mels, maybe do some research on how to reverse the aging spell in case she doesn't wake up herself again?" Chris fidgeted nervously. Phoebe nodded as she looked around the manor and caught herself smiling. Prue was the only one that had ever been gutsy enough to throw a wild high school party when they had been young.

"How did you know to come tonight?" Chris whispered his question.

"A friend of yours told me." Phoebe nodded knowing that Chris understood that Verity Vanguard had helped his aunt see her vision of several dangers and that is why the charmed sisters had appeared right in time.

"Send me home? I will talk to you tomorrow, and try to avoid me and I will tell your mother about your little girlfriend." Phoebe pressed a maternal finger into Chris' nose.

"Ok, ok." Chris nodded. He gave his aunt a hug and sent her away before jetting up the stairs. Wyatt was standing in the doorframe of Melinda's bedroom, starring into the dark. Chris joined his older brother and looked at the older version of his little sister snuggle underneath a large purple comforter and clutching a tiny rag doll that she had slept with since she was an infant.

"Just a normal party…" Melinda was muttering.

"I know Mels," Wyatt whispered reassurance.

"Trying to be social legends…" Mels explained half asleep.

"How'd that go for you sis?" Chris laughed a bit.

"Going to be grounded forever…" Melinda mumbled turning to face the wall away from her brothers.

"It's not so bad," Chris sighed.

"The spell was Dora's idea…" Melinda whispered her last attempt at speaking before she drifted completely into sleep.

"Completely shocking it was Dora's idea." Wyatt rolled his eyes stepping into the hallway and pulling the door shut behind him. The brothers trudged down the hall a bit to their own doors, before Wyatt turned to glare at Chris.

"What'd you do?" Wyatt sighed.

"How'd your date go?" Chris smiled.

"Seriously Chris, you were close to…"

"…to dying. Tell me something new." Chris shrugged. Wyatt took a step forward and pulled at the tear in his brother's shirt.

"There's quite a bit of blood still, did I heal everything?"

"Can we do the big brother thing tomorrow then? It's been a long day, unless you want to share details about your date?" Chris slapped Wyatt's hand away.

"Go to bed." Wyatt pushed his brother. Chris crinkled his nose in disgust and turned the knob of his door.

"You can't tell me what to do." Chris stuck out his tongue before ducking into his bedroom as Wyatt swung at the air.

"Good night!" Wyatt shouted at the door before turning into his own room.

The darkness of the night was unnerving in the countryside of Massachusetts. A soft almost undetectable glow emitted from shadows of the woods, where a lone cabin stood. The wax of several candles was melting drips off the edges of a large wooden table where a stone bowl sat protectively nestled around dark relics of ancient magic. Sitting inside the stone four vials glittered ruby red in the candlelight, Nemod was pacing around the table lovingly glancing at the blood every so often.

"The phantasms worked marvelously!" Nemod clapped excited. Klea stood stoically near the door of the small cabin nodding.

"The children did not even suspect that something was array." Klea nodded.

"Yes teenagers and Halliwells so deliciously self-centered sometimes." Nemod nodded. "No more blood collection for the next five days, but we shall start the beginning of phase two?"

"Yes sir," Klea affirmed. "Where is the seer this evening?"

"I sent her away," Nemod tapped his fingers against the table.

"For what purpose?" Klea demanded suspiciously. The old demon was not particularly fond of the giddy nature of the new seeking source, but she did respect his cunning strategies. Nemod was as smart if not smarter than Belthazor and even though Belthazor had been a traitor and weak in his love for a witch, Klea had respected him.

"Did you sense the powerful little creature that was with Chris tonight?" Nemod smiled darkly at his first in command. Klea blinked rapidly before nodding.

"A child of an oracle and a witch, impossible." Klea stated.

"As impossible as a witch and a whitelighter child, or a witch and an elder child." Nemod laughed.

"You wish to collect limited editions?" Klea smirked despite her stony nature.

Nemod conjured two chairs and the demons sat and darkly started plotting out the second phase to a plan that revolved around charts and timelines, witches and demons and was so confusing it wasn't likely that anyone aside from its creators understood it.

The afternoon sun was bursting into the Halliwell attic, glaring off a pair of dark sunglasses. A still young twenty something Melinda was slouching down in a red armchair, with a hand pushing up against the left side of her face as she groan periodically.

"When can I take something for this headache again?" Melinda whined.

"Maybe you'll think twice the next time you decide to drink," Wyatt lectured as he thumbed through the Book of Shadows. He tapped at the open page, quickly scribbling down a note on a notepad before flipping to the next page.

"You can't remember what spell Dora used?" Wyatt demanded again from his younger sister. Piper's children had been pent up in the Manor's attic trying to figure out their many magical problems from Melinda's present age to the hellhounds that had attacked them the night before. All while Melinda moped through a hangover that her brothers wouldn't allow her to sleep through and Chris and Wyatt silently argued with each other about their secret whereabouts from the night before.

"No, no and no! I can't remember the stupid spell Wyatt." Melinda spat angrily pulling her knees up to her chest.

"Leave her alone for a few minutes Wy," Chris begged. Chris sat at the other side of the attic, studying one of charmed ones many resource books while also conducting a search with her laptop. On the table near the book, Chris cell phone started vibrating but the young man just tapped the reject button and continued with his research. Seconds later, Wyatt's phone started sounding from his jean pocket. Wyatt rolled his eyes as he slipped his hand into his pocket for a second before pulling it back out and jotting down another note.

"Are you guys going to tell her?" Melinda stroked her dark hair over her face as her cell phone started singing loudly. The youngest didn't touch her phone, sitting on the ground in front of her.

"For being in your twenties you sound like a three year old." Wyatt commented.

"You're in your twenties and you're still terrified of mom." Melinda stuck her tongue out at her older brother.

"You wanted to be normal. Normal sixteen-year-old sophomores get pretty grounded when they throw a party and get drunk when her parents are out of town." Chris commented without looking away from his computer screen.

"I'll tell her you almost died again," Melinda threatened.

"Wyatt was going to tell her that anyway," Chris shrugged.

"He's right." Wyatt nodded.

"I hate both of you." Melinda sighed.

"You've been saying that…" Chris shook his head. A door slammed from somewhere below.

"Mom came home early." Melinda jumped out of her chair and ran to hide behind Chris.

"Or Aunt Phoebe is here," Wyatt frowned as he glanced over his shoulder out of the window. Something crashed below, the sounds of shattered glass and shouting preceded a tiny set of white lights that materialized into a seven-year-old Pandora.

"Who are YOU?" Pandora screamed at Wyatt with a pointing finger.

"Volume. Inside voice Pandora." Melinda cried burying her head into Chris' side. Chris softly petted his sister silky black hair lovingly with one hand and used his other hand to follow the sentence in the book in front of him.

"PANDORA MITCHELL!" Paige burst into the attic irritated.

"Mommy is mad." Dora whistled unafraid. The little girl smiled a toothless grin, before stamping her foot on the floor sparking flames.

"Dora!" Wyatt exclaimed flicked his wrist magically moving a glass of water that had been Melinda's over the small fire.

"Pandora!" Paige huffed over to the young girl and placed her hands under the girl's arms and picked her up. "You're going to sit right here, and not move. You're totally on a time out."

Paige set Pandora on the armchair that Melinda had been in only moments before. Phoebe had waltzed into the attic, her cell phone pressed against her ear.

"Piper, calm down." Phoebe was saying.

"You answered mom!" Chris moaned quietly. Phoebe waved at him to be quiet.

"I know, I know. I will tell them. Really, we have it under control. I don't think you should…" Phoebe was arguing. Paige snapped her fingers at the fidgeting Pandora before walking towards Wyatt and the Book.

"Any luck?" Paige yawned.

"Melinda can't remember the spell…" Wyatt shrugged.

"Piper, stop yelling at me!" Phoebe snapped. Suddenly the charmed one held out the phone to the room.

"One of you answer your mother, otherwise she's going to the airport right now and waiting for a standby plane…" Phoebe warned. Melinda shook her head and buried herself more into Chris side. Chris looked at Wyatt and smiled.

"Please? You know you're her favorite…" Chris begged. Wyatt let out a frustrated groan and stepped away from the book and snatched his aunt's phone.

"Hey Mom…" He started. A loud shrieking started to come out of the phone and Chris and Melinda cringed.

"Ignoring her never makes it better. Ever." Phoebe rubbed her temples before walking over to inspect what Chris was researching.

"I know mom. I understand." Wyatt was mumbling into the phone.

"Can I play with the doll house mommy?" Dora screeched.

"No. Timeout means no playing Dora." Paige sighed.

"But I want to!" Dora cried loudly.

"Please keep it down." Melinda cried.

"Look twenty and seven, same noise." Chris mocked.

"Oh for the love of God, this is driving me crazy. I didn't do anything for personal gain." Paige shook her fist at the ceiling.

"I will tell them mom. Yes, I understand. Absolutely nowhere, completely disappointed." Wyatt grumbled.

"She's going to kill me." Melinda cried again.

"We've all survived death a la Piper before," Phoebe winked at her niece. Wyatt hung up the phone and glared at his siblings.

"Mom wants you to know that we are all grounded for the rest of the weekend and that she is terribly disappointed…" Wyatt started.

"Disappointed in us and can't believe that we acted so irresponsibly and that when she calls it's meant to be answered." Chris and Melinda finished in unison.

"And I hate both of you." Wyatt added handing the phone back to his aunt.

"Everyone in this family is so dramatic." Phoebe patted Chris on the shoulder.

"Can I have a snack?" Dora asked.

"This was not her best age," Chris commented from his spot over his research materials. Wyatt walked back to the book, while Melinda started crawling towards her younger cousin.

"Melinda, you can walk." Wyatt growled at her.

"No, right now I think I prefer to crawl. Thanks for your offered help bro." Melinda replied sarcastically.

"Hung over then?" Phoebe commented, trying not to laugh.

"Clearly," Paige didn't even try not to laugh.

"And the big brother holier than thou and bratty little sister thing has been going on for hours." Chris complained.

Melinda reached the chair and placed two hands on Dora's little knees. Pandora was wearing an oversized t-shirt as a dress and socks with no shoes.

"Pandora, can you remember the spell you said last night? Remember it was something about momentarily…" Melinda begged.

"I called upon the ancient powers." Dora giggled.

"I've been asking her that for hours!" Paige glared at her daughter.

"Were you yelling at her? When Dora was seven she never responded well to the yelling." Chris pointed out to his aunt. Paige glared at Chris now.

"She masked us, aging us prematurely." Melinda nodded leaning against the chair and staying on the ground.

"When did you guys cast the spell?" Phoebe questioned.

"Before we walked into the liquor store to buy the drinks…" Melinda responded.

"Not only is what you did illegal but it was also a big personal gain no-no. Of all the irresponsible uses for magic, haven't we taught you girls better than that?" Phoebe crossed her arms and looked disappointed.

"We were just going to use the ids but Dora didn't want to take any chances." Melinda hide her arm, resting the nook of her elbow over her nose.

"I'm going to call your Henry and let him just arrest the both of you." Paige leaned back into the windowsill obviously giving up looking through the book of shadows.

"We didn't mean anything bad by it Mommy," Pandora explained.

"We wanted to be social legacies and throw the biggest party anyone had ever been to." Melinda explained.

"They wanted to be normal." Wyatt whispered for his sister.

"I mean it wasn't the best plan to try to be normal using magic, but it's the effort." Chris nodded giving his sister and cousin a sad look.

"Magic gets involved in everything else." Melinda had started shrinking at the same time that Pandora had started growing.

"We didn't mean anything by it at all, I'm sorry we used magic at all." Pandora stated as she filled out her t-shirt.

"Looks like we can cross get Melinda and Dora back to normal off our list." Chris laughed.

"What am I wearing?" Dora questioned looking down at her neon socks and plain t-shirt.

"The only thing seven year old you fit into." Paige shrugged.

"Grounded?" Dora asked her mother.

"Oh yeah." Paige nodded. "Very, very grounded."

"Can I go back to sleep?" Melinda begged of her brothers.

"As long as you can have the house clean before mom shows up, which if we're lucky is still tomorrow." Wyatt nodded. Melinda groaned and the two young women scurried out of the attic before they were lectured, begrudged or criticized anymore.

The afternoon sun was dropping down in the sky, as Bobby Jensen pulled open the passenger door of his beat up old car. Patricia set her cell phone down in the middle console of the car before stepping out of the car. Both young people were dressed in matching blue t-shirts brightly stating they were members of the clean the park operation. Bobby held a large trash bag, while Tricia quickly snatched a pair of gloves from the glove compartment of the car.

"You're really going to leave your phone? That's unlike you." Bobby frowned shutting the door slowly.

"I don't think I'll need to talk anyone." Tricia shrugged glancing down and avoiding Bobby's gaze.

"Are you in trouble?" Bobby asked as he started walking away from her carefully giving her the distance she wanted without leaving her completely alone.

"Not exactly." Tricia shook her head as she stepped forward slowly. The Golden Gate Park clean up crew was the activity that had first brought Robert Jensen and Patricia Mitchell together at the beginning of the fall semester. It had become an unspoken weekly date between the two overly active school government officials.

"Did your mom find out about the party last night?" Bobby asked knowingly. In their afternoons together Bobby had learned quite a bit about the Mitchell-Halliwell family from Pandora's most annoying habits to how Paige liked her coffee. Not that the young man hadn't shared details about his family, a hippie older sister that was attending UC Berkeley and reminded Bobby and Tricia of an older version of Dora. He also found himself divulging about his parent's fighting to the quiet and always supportive Patricia.

"You could say that." Tricia sighed.

"Dora was pretty hammered. Though I don't remember how I got home exactly, but it was a long night." Bobby swooped down and picked up an empty water bottle.

"Well you know how you don't stay up late well…" Dora smiled nervously. She started wandering off the park path into an area that was usually littered with trash. Bobby followed her willingly into the tall tree trunks.

"Where was your family this afternoon?" Bobby asked casually.

"Mom was at the manor, checking on Melinda and Dad went with HJ to play a game of basketball at the community center." Dora explained.

"So no one was home when you left?" Bobby asked.

"No." Tricia frowned as she pulled the gloves on before starting to pick up glass chards near the base of a tree.

"So you're grounded and didn't ask if this counted as a social activity you were allowed to still do?" Bobby snapped his fingers as he came to his conclusion.

"Stop deconstructing my life." Tricia snapped.

"Why would you risk getting into more trouble to come out and clean a park, could it be for the good of our community…?" Bobby joked. Tricia ignored him as she fell to her knees and started to dig out the base of the broken bottle.

"Or might it be because a certain Miss Mitchell enjoys the company of student body vice president?" Bobby was standing right behind Tricia now.

"Why do you need to refer to yourself with a title?" Tricia sighed before she stood back up and turned to face him. Bobby had dropped the trash bag and was standing with a grin plastered on his face.

"It makes me sound more powerful and cool." He shrugged.

"And you think you're not already powerful and cool?" Tricia's eyebrow popped up in a manner that resembled her mother. A strong gust of wind blew through the area, causing Tricia's light brown hair to dance into her eyes. Bobby automatically reacted and pressed his hand against the girl's cheek as he combed her hair back.

"Uh, Thanks." Tricia stuttered caught off guard by how close Bobby had suddenly gotten.

"You know I've wanted to kiss you for months, and I was sure that last night I finally would…" Bobby bent down and pressed his lips against Tricia's slightly opened shocked lips. It didn't take long before Patricia was kissing back and Bobby was slipping his hands behind her back. As the impulsive and slightly inexperienced hands of Bobby started struggling to get underneath the cotton t-shirt of Tricia, the little witch panicked popped all of her fingers at once. A fire sparked catching to the drying wood and leaves of the wood around the young couple.

"Fire," Dora cried.

"Yeah," Bobby sighed running his hand across her now bare back.

"No, really fire!" Tricia cried again trying to pull Bobby off of her. Bobby reacted the second time she stated the problem, turning around to see the quickly growing flames.

"Fire," Bobby struggled with his hands shaking to pull out his cell phone and dial 9-1-1. Tricia pulled him away from the dancing flames, as tears started to fall freely from her hazel eyes.

"Yeah right off of John F Kennedy Drive, near the conservatory of flowers. You'll see the flames, hurry its growing fast." Bobby explained. As he hung up the phone, Bobby slipped his hand into Tricia's.

"Don't cry." Bobby whispered.

"It's my fault, I'm going to burn down the park." Tricia cried. Bobby shook his head, looking completely confused for a second.

"It can't be your fault, you are just feeling guilty. Let me take you home, it will be ok. We just have to wait for the fire fighters." Bobby tried to calm Tricia who was now sobbing uncontrollably.

"My fault, my stupid fault." Tricia was crying. Sirens were blasting from down the street and soon the place was surrounded by firefighters who dismissed Bobby and Tricia fearing they might get hurt. Bobby quickly ushered a now inconsolable Tricia into his car and started driving.

"Do you want me to walk you up to the door?" Bobby asked timidly of the still crying girl. Patricia shook her head and tried to compose herself for the thousandth time in the car. She ran her wrist across her eyes, smearing mascara and moisture of her tears across her face. She sniffled for a second, regulating her breathing before she gave Bobby an embarrassed smile.

"I think I'm just tired." She hiccupped.

"And feeling guilty much," Bobby sighed. The boy leaned forward and kissed her momentarily before Tricia panicked and jumped out of the car. Flames were flickering at her fingertips and the girl ran into the building to her family apartment. The tears started flowing freely again and as she stormed into her family's living room the crying teenager barely heard her father's chiding.

"When you're grounded young lady it means you don't leave the house…" Henry was yelling still as Patricia slammed the door to the room she shared with Pandora. Crying frantically Tricia threw herself across her white comforter, clutching a cross-stitched pillow with the word _Noble_ on it in a soft blue.

The girl didn't even hear her father enter the room over her sobbing. Henry sat on the edge of his usually calmer teenage daughter's bed. He bounced a bit to get the girl's attention but when that didn't work he started coughing softly. Tricia didn't stop crying, she didn't acknowledge him at all.

"PT what's wrong?" Henry asked softly. When the twins had gone into kindergarten they had demanded to have nicknames like their brother HJ, so Henry had compiled and still occasionally called his girls PT and PD.

"Cleaning…Bobby…Fire…My…Fault…Hate…Magic." Patricia cried loudly.

"I don't understand you at all," Henry sighed.

"Leave me alone please?" Tricia sobbed clearly before curling up into her pillow. Henry let out a heavy sigh before deciding it was the effort that counted with an emotional teenage girl.

"Maybe I'll order a pizza with pineapple and have HJ go pick up some s'more stuff for dinner?" Henry suggested before stepping out of the room. Pineapple pizza and s'mores were Tricia's favorite dinner items and Henry was willing to bribe his daughter out of her crying mood.

The sun was starting to set and Phoebe, Paige, Chris and Wyatt sat around the kitchen table at the manor sipping hot apple cider tea. The book of shadows sat opened in the middle of the table, as Paige tapped her fingers hurriedly.

"So you went to a place called The Apple?" Paige asked her voice scathing with disbelief.

"Demon bar, been there since the dawn of time. I'm honestly really surprised you guys have never been there." Chris explained as he pulled the book towards him and started writing on a black page.

"And you heard about this bar how?" Phoebe asked.

"Chris actually took me there before telling me anything about it." Wyatt shrugged and crossed his arms stubbornly.

"Right, because that was the responsible way to take care of that…" Paige rolled her eyes.

"I didn't want to go 58 rounds with Wyatt about why we needed to go down there, so I figured the blind attack on his part would be the best approach. If I remember correctly you did a similar thing when you tried to take on Cole, as the source, alone." Chris glanced up only for a second before re-focusing on his entry.

"Christopher, attitude sir." Phoebe frowned at her nephew.

"How did you find this bar mister?" Paige wrinkled her nose at him.

"If I had to bet money, it would be either on one of his many escapades in the underworld alone or Javin…" Wyatt yawned.

"I might have other demon friends you don't even know about Wy." Chris laughed.

"Cute, really cute." Phoebe gave Chris a light kick under the table.

"We found out from this demon Benji, that there is a rising source. And old friend of ours," Wyatt explained.

"It's Nemod." Chris stated confidently.

"And you know this because?" Phoebe asked. A cheer erupted from the other room, as Coop was playing a game of trivial pursuit in the other room with his three girls, Pandora and Melinda.

"An old friend of ours? Demonic old friends don't last long in this family." Chris shrugged knowingly.

"Benji also said something about a demonic child, aunt Phoebe?" Wyatt asked quietly. Phoebe paled suddenly and stared shocked at her nephews. She opened her mouth a few times without any words.

"It was nothing to worry about Wyatt," Chris tried to dismiss what he recognized as a fear in his brother.

Melinda came sprinting into the kitchen though before anymore could be said on the subject.

"Mom and dad are home." She cried hurrying to stand behind her two older brothers.

"You know hiding behind us when you broke mom's favorite picture frame was cute, now not so cute." Wyatt spat.

"And just because someone told you once that you looked good in blue doesn't mean you should have taken them seriously enough to only wear blue." Melinda snapped back. Paige flicked her hands up and the Book of Shadows disappeared and Phoebe hurriedly walked towards the kettle and started pouring more tea. A scuffle of noises, luggage being dropped and a series of hellos sounded from the conservatory. Moments later the oldest charmed one stormed into the room and strode right to her three cowering children. She immediately started inspecting Chris, pressing her hands over his arms.

"Ok flight mom?" Wyatt started asking. Leo walked into the kitchen looking exhausted, probably from the last minute plane ride after only part of the conference.

"Boys, you know how ignoring your mother's phone calls makes her crazy…" Leo sighed as he kissed his daughter on the top of her head before taking a cup of tea from Phoebe. Piper finished examining Chris and moved to Wyatt, repeating the process of checking his arms and then torso.

"What are you girls doing here?" Leo asked confused. "It seems that all the problems from the kids little party were fixed."

"We were just making sure that they didn't get into anymore trouble here," Paige smiled. Piper finished checking Wyatt and moved on to Melinda, starting with the girl's face.

"Mom?" Chris sighed.

"She's not going to talk to you while she's inspecting." Wyatt sighed.

"She might not speak to you at all for the evening." Leo commented.

"That mad huh?" Chris scratched behind his ear.

"Maybe this would be the time for us to leave?" Phoebe waved Paige out of the kitchen.

"Brunch tomorrow, same time." Piper commented as she finished with Melinda.

"Be here." Her sisters responded.

"Try being on time!" Piper yelled after them. "Leo would you tell your children that I am going to make dinner and they should spend the rest of the night convincing me that they are truly sorry that they ignored their mother when she called them repeatedly." Piper asked Leo.

"Piper, don't you think…" Leo started.

"Mom, I made chicken pesto pasta." Chris winked at his father.

"And I made salad." Wyatt nodded excitedly pulling out a bowl from the fridge.

"Of course, I baked a pie." Melinda giggled.

"We saw that you were going to be back." Chris shrugged. "We started sucking up early."

Wyatt and Chris smiled at each other before taking steps to surround their mother and pick her up into a hug.

"No, no! Not getting off the hook that easily! You horrible boys!" Piper shouted. Leo and Melinda started laughing as Leo pulled his youngest into a hug.

"You know you're grounded for a while?" Leo sighed to his daughter.

"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Melinda nodded giggling at her brothers smothering her mother.

"And we're going to have some long talks about personal gain magic, and why its not a good idea to break laws with magic. And how you shouldn't do things that destroy trust with your family." Leo commented.

"I know dad," Melinda sighed.

"And about responsibility." Leo added.

"I get it dad," Melinda nodded.

"Dad is like the song that never ends." Chris laughed.

"You and I, are probably going to have a conversation too Chris." Leo shook his head.

"Wyatt did it." Chris pointed and laughed.

"All right, car keys and no orbbing for the night. I'm not going to lecture tonight, because I'm exhausted but this kind of behavior is completely unacceptable from all of you." Piper held out her hand. Melinda fished out a set of keys and dropped them into her mother's hand. The night went quickly into different pictures of domestic tranquility, with all the charmed cousins quietly stuck under their own roofs.

* * *

_Author's Note: Just a day late! Wanted to let everyone know there is going to be about a two week break as I start working on a paper that is due (and super long) so sorry, for the wait but the next chapter is going to prove to bring out some important plot points, promise you want me to only have to focus on writing that! _

_On that note, this is the first new chapter (with nothing of the old story in it) so, maybe some reviews? Let me know what you guys are liking, what you arent' liking... what you want to see more of? etc... I really do take what you guys respond into account! _

_Thanks all!  
_


	7. Everything I'm Not

_Author's Note: _I am so sorry for the desperately long delay... It wasn't actually because I had any kind of writer's block life just sort of happened. I've been hectic busy (like more than any person should ever be) for about the last 8 weeks, so I apologize! I know exactly what I want to happen in the next chapter and life is slowing down considerably after Wednesday - so I hope to have that one up soon! In the mean while remember, want to know what's taking so long that's what twitter is for: Laces716 and enjoy this chapter...

**Everything I'm Not **

_Everything I'm Not, Kanye West _

**August 2022 **

Sitting on the steps of Union Square, Penelope Halliwell leaned back on her elbows and tilted her face towards the sun. The girl was wearing a pair of small squared sunglasses that barely hid her rapidly changing purple tinted eyes, as she could feel the heartbeat of her cousin nearing her.

Chris tugged down on his Giants baseball cap, trying to hide himself from the crowd and maybe even from his magical cousin. He brushed passed chatting couples and busy looking business people, listening to the tidbits about people of the city and their activities. A group of tourists tried to stop Chris to ask for directions but the young man simply sidestepped another pedestrian to avoid the questions. It took him only a few more seconds to block Penelope's sun from beating down on her Snow White skin that oddly resembled a younger Paige.

"Done shopping so soon Pen?" He sighed.

"You're heartbeat is stronger than the others, you know." Pen flicked her glasses up to show Chris the deep eggplant shade of her irises.

"They turn dark pink when you sense Patience and Prim." Chris frowned.

"Yeah, but they are my sisters. You are the only one that is so dark out of my cousins." Pen shrugged.

"Why didn't you shop?" Chris asked as he sat down next to his cousin. Penelope kicked out her legs comfortably trying to absorb the abnormally bright rays of the city's sun. The middle cupitch was brightly clad in an orange top and black shorts with her hair twirled into a bun, a picture of fashion sneakily borrowed from her older sister.

"The sun was out, I figured it was a better use of my time to tan than to shop inside." Penelope winked at him.

"Or you're still hoping not to go to George Washington at all?" Chris scrunched up his nose as a man walked by holding a hotdog drenched in onions and mustard.

"I want to go to Magic School." Pen rotated her body to stare at Chris.

"I've heard, but why?" Chris asked her.

"I just do…" Pen shrugged.

"Not a good enough answer." Chris shrugged back.

"I'm never going to as perfect as Wyatt…" Penelope started. Chris snorted, caught off guard by a statement the young man often thought silently.

"And I'm never going to be as charismatic as you are, or as charming as Patience, or as helpful as Henry." Penelope popped her lips, not sounding sad just resigned to her faith.

"And I'm not as pretty as Melinda, or as radical as Pandora or as conservative as Patricia. There are so many people to live up to at George Washington, and I'm barely anything at all. Even Primrose is more energetic than me, so much more full of life…" Penelope sighed.

"And it has nothing to do with the fact that you're terrified of demons attacking you at school?" Chris sighed.

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me…" Penelope quipped. Chris laughed and nodded throwing his arm around the younger girl lovingly.

"I'll see what I can do, but know, there's no one as fiercely loyal as you…"

**October 9 **

_ A dark woman in a blood red coat was sitting in a dark, strangely configured underground room. Animal hides hang like tapestries on the walls and ancient looking candelabras held slowly burning candles that provided dark sinister lighting. Cole sat in a cherry wood throne, dressed in all black and looking significantly more evil than the only times Wyatt had ever seen him before. _

_ "It will keep you from ever reining as the source." The woman in red ominously announced as her eyes shone with a white light. _

"_That can't be right," Cole refuted. _

"_It is what I foresee. Unless of course, you cancel the wedding." _

"_I can't, I need Phoebe." _

"_Yes, I can see that too." _

"_We've been through this," Cole sighed. "Cole's love for Phoebe exists within me, I can't overcome it. If I'm to regain what I've lost it has to be with Phoebe. Marrying her." Cole explained as the woman paced around the room. _

"_Even if it means losing your son?" The woman asked. _

"_A son." Cole leaned forward, excited and proud. "You saw a son in my future?"_

"_More than a son. You and Phoebe Halliwell will produce the most powerful child the world has ever seen." _

"_Ah, that's my boy." Cole smiled and sat back. _

"_No. He won't be your boy. He'll be theirs on the side of good. Unless you marry the witch in a dark way," The woman suggested. _

"_That's impossible, the wedding is tomorrow. I don't have time" _

"_Then your son will never be heir to your kingdom, he'll be heir to their destiny." The woman's voice repeats the phrases: "heir to your kingdom," "heir to their destiny," and "most powerful child the world has ever seen." _

_Paige was in a cage, Phoebe was kneeling on the ground and the same woman in the red cloak from before stood. _

_ "Give me strength and give me might, to steal a baby in the still of night…" _

_ A light burst as the fetus of Phoebe and Cole's baby was stolen from the womb. Then darkness fell and Wyatt stood in an empty place. A rabbit hole appeared beneath his feet and the young man stared down at it curiously. Flames burst from the hole, lighting up the darkness and causing Wyatt to take a step back. Then a light, a streaming powerful ray of light shot from the hole and Wyatt shielded his eyes from the brightness. At last a body materialized, a small infant body at first that grew rapidly before Wyatt's very eyes a man grew. A man that was just as tall as Wyatt but had darker features, Cole's eyes and his strong jaw but the familiar wide smile of his aunt Phoebe greeted him. _

_ "Did you know, that even though I was predicted much like you were that no one ever realized you would be a boy? The first charmed child had been destined to be a boy for centuries." The man, a few years older than Wyatt smiled. _

_ "What are you?" Wyatt stuttered standing as far away as he could from the vision in front of him. _

_ "Interesting you don't ask who I am," The man frowned playfully as he started pacing. _

_ "You're the source." Wyatt responded confidently. _

_ "Maybe once I would have been," The vision nodded. _

_ "But now?" Wyatt asked again cautiously taking steps away from the vision. _

_ "I think my name would have been Potter, mom was rather fond of that name were they were naming you."_

_ "Potter? Glad mom didn't like that name. Magical Potter conjuring frogs into my second grade teacher's desk would have been suspicious." Wyatt laughed forgetting his brisk nature for a moment. _

_ "Well I don't really exist, so I don't mind the name Potter." The vision shrugged. _

_ "But you are…?" Wyatt asked again. _

_ "Everything you are." The vision responded. _

_ "You were born to be evil," Wyatt shook his head._

_ "I wasn't born at all." Potter snapped sarcastically. _

_ "The source… Isn't you?" Wyatt wondered out loud. _

_ "There isn't a source yet. You should study cousin, on the inner workings of the source of all evil." Potter chided. _

_ "Am I dreaming?" Wyatt finally asked watching the rabbit hole dissolve into the darkness again. _

_ "About the destiny of the charmed ones and the heir of the kingdom. I was destined for a kingdom much like yourself. The most magically powerful child the world has ever known." Potter's voice became cold and distant as vision started dancing around Wyatt yet again. Fire and light, demons dying, innocents dying, his mother crying, his aunt Phoebe collapsing, the tomb stone of his aunt Paige and then his little brother dying in the arms of a his father looking much younger than he did now. _

Wyatt tumbled off the bed and hit the ground of the room hard enough to shake him awake. His heart was pounding hard enough that his head had already begun to hurt and his breathing was hard. A cold sweat had made his sheet cling to his naked torso in an uncomfortable way.

"A nightmare?" Bianca walked into the room with a towel wrapped around her body and her wet hair sticking to her shoulders.

"I don't know what it was." Wyatt huffed a bit, pulling the sheet off his skin and slowly lifting himself from the ground.

"You were mumbling in your sleep things about demons and the underworld." Bianca offered to him as she started brushing her hair.

"And you decided to let me work it out?" Wyatt asked annoyed.

"It didn't seem like anything was hurting you, it's bad to wake someone from a nightmare." Bianca shrugged.

"Well thanks for your concern." Wyatt grumbled. Bianca set down her brush and walked over to the young man. She sat down next to him and placed her hand on his bare shoulder.

"Do you want to talk about it?' She asked.

"Not really." Wyatt mumbled.

"Well then," Bianca smiled and slipped one of her bare legs over Wyatt's knee as she leaned forward.

"Want to forget about it?" She asked. Wyatt didn't even respond he just wrapped his arms around Bianca and pulled her back onto the bed.

Up the coast, Phoebe and Coop were sitting together over lunch at Halliwells. Coop sipped at his coffee as he admired his wife work on a few notes for her newest column.

"I'm writing to a mother of a teenage girl, it's about how her daughter hates me." Phoebe explained to her husband.

"Now, none of your daughters hate you." Coop rolled his eyes.

"Penelope has been doing a lovely job of ignoring me lately," Phoebe eyed her husband suspiciously. Coop smiled and shrugged.

"They can't all confide in you alone, you know." Coop shrugged.

"Patience doesn't confide in me, Penelope is ignoring me and Primrose is too busy thinking Chris is a God." Phoebe jotted down another note.

"Patience is in love, which by the way loving wife, has me quite concerned. I think that Dervin affects her powers far too much," Coop sighed tapping his fingers against the table. Phoebe stuck her notes and pen back into her purse now and started stirring sugar into her own cup of coffee.

"Coop. She's a teenager who is a cupid, a witch and charmed. Everything affects her powers." Phoebe smiled kindly at her husband.

"She's too in love with him. I think we should do something to bind her ability to transport herself to him," Coop grumbled.

"We can't do that, we can't contain her powers just because we want to. You know that." Phoebe leaned over and patted her husband's hand.

"You didn't have powers when you were a teenager." Coop pointed out his usual argument.

"And later on in life, I became queen of the underworld. Remember that darling?" Phoebe sipped at her coffee nonchalantly.

"What does that have to do with anything?" Coop frowned.

"She has to learn to control her powers." Phoebe shrugged. "We all did."

The couple was quiet, deep in thoughts about their daughters when Phoebe dropped her coffee cup. Coop experience in reacting to his wife's every move, caught the partially empty cup before it shattered on the ground.

"Phoebe?" Coop glanced around to the other patrons of the restaurant making sure no one was staring or listening. "Is it the Source?"

"No, not exactly. It was a memory." Phoebe ran the palm of her hand against her right ear.

"About the Source?" Coop frowned sensing Phoebe was keeping something from him. His wife and his daughters all had the same habit of casting down their glance and slightly biting on the edge of their lips when they were lying.

"Sort of, I have to get back to work Coop." Phoebe gathered her stuff quickly.

"You and Paige have to tell Piper about the Source," Coop suggested as he stood up and leaned in to kiss Phoebe on the cheek.

"What if you tell her?" Phoebe smiled.

"I'm a cupid, you're a charmed one." Coop winked at her.

"Yeah, yeah. Destiny and all that jazz, see you tonight." Phoebe hurried out of the lunch not looking back once. Coop watched her, knowing that whatever his wife saw it wasn't going to be good news.

**October 10****th**

_ In the underworld, Chris was tossing up an unfamiliar item. It was a dark and hazy moment, as candlelight flickered and a semi-familiar voice taunted the young man. _

_ "That is what you desire isn't it?" The voice taunted. Chris started to object, starting to turn around only to be shot with a dark lighter arrow. His body crumbled, a pain unlike any other shook his body. He dropped a potion onto the ground and struggled with a pain that the young Christopher knew shouldn't feel as unfamiliar as it did. _

_ The demon with his snide tone and frosted blonde hair started his own disclosing monologue. _

_ "I could sense your desire from the beginning. You never wanted to kill your charges, just teach them a lesson." The demon took steps forward. _

_ "That's right dark lighter arrow. The poison shouldn't take long." The announcement came as the demon's dark boot smashed the glass of the potion vile. Chris struggled to breathe, struggled to fight for his life. The young man realized he had never once had a dark lighter arrow stuck in him for so long. In his 19 years and over fifteen dark lighter arrows, never once had Wyatt allowed for him to feel the sharp dullness of life he was feeling now. Where was Wyatt? _

_ "But with luck, you might just live long enough to watch the Charmed Ones learn their lesson after all…" _

_ The lighting changed, the world was more familiar but the pain still shot through his body. He stumbled upon the wooden floor onto an ancient rug of the manor, one that his father had finally insisted get thrown out a few years back. A cold sweat ran down his face, as he clutched at his chest where the pain was concentrated and mumbled the name Bianca. _

_ He was orbed to a couch, the same couch that was still in the manor today. The fabric encasing his chest was removed and he could hear his family speaking over him. _

_ "Oh my God what is that?" Phoebe demanded. _

_ "I don't know." Leo said in a whispered tone. _

_ "Doesn't matter just heal him," Piper insisted. _

_ "Why didn't he tell us about that?" Paige wondered. _

_ "Why doesn't he tell us about a lot of things…" Piper grumbled. Chris could feel the warmth of his father's healing touch but he frowned at the predicament. His father hadn't been able to heal in years. _

_ "What's the problem?" Piper asked concerned. _

_ "He's not healing, something is draining his powers and blocking mine." Leo explained. Chris could hear the annoyance in his voice. "It's like a virus." _

_ "A virus named Bianca." The underlying anger in Piper's voice made Chris shiver. _

_ "You think she did this?" _

_ "It's gotta be." Piper stated. _

_ "Yeah, but it doesn't explain why she'd come back from the future just to kill him…" Paige argued. _

_ "Well someone had to have sent her, she's a hired gun." Piper explained. _

_ "Yeah, we have to find her to save him. Figure out what she did… Woah." Phoebe stopped mid-thought. Chris could feel her power invading his thoughts, his space in a way that was unlike his usual observance of her empathic abilities. _

_ "What is it?" Leo asked. _

_ "Oh my god, he loves her." Phoebe sighed. _

_ "Loves who, Bianca?" Paige sounded confused. _

_ "Yeah, she broke his heart." Phoebe explained. _

_ Chris felt his chest tighten again. He could feel his livelihood diminish into darkness as he struggled to breathe. His fingers tightened around an object, cold and round. _

_ Phoebe's hand softly touched his hand and pulled away the object. _

_ "Engagement ring…" She pointed out. _

Chris gasped at the air, feeling like he was coming out of water for the first time in hours. He had fallen asleep ungraciously on top of his grading book in an empty magic school classroom. Verity Vanguard appeared as soon as Chris heartbeat started to slow down and he realized he had been dreaming.

"You dream of your past life," Verity explained as she danced her fingertips along Chris set jaw.

"How do you know?" Chris growled, a residual anger from his lack of control in the dreams of his death.

"You are prone to life threatening situations," Verity commented as she started to comb her hand through his long shaggy hair.

"I don't ever die…" Chris smiled and winked at her. He clasped his hands around her thigh and pulled her towards him. The young man could feel his blood running through his veins and with every intake of breath there wasn't any pain. Chris Halliwell was in complete control of his current situation and he was going to exert his control. He forcefully ran his hands underneath Verity's shirt and the half oracle witch didn't attempt to stop him but instead slipped her skillful hands through his sleeves and down his back.

In a back copying room of George Washington High School, Patricia Mitchell had her legs curled around the waist of a certain student body president. Bobby was excitedly kissing the girl as he clumsily unbuttoned his own shirt.

"Are you sure?" He whispered yet again. Patricia didn't bother to answer him though but instead scooped herself closer to his body and started to wiggle out of her skirt with as little grace as possible.

"What if…" Bobby started his worry again but Patricia pressed her lips onto his before the words escaped him. She helped him get his polo up and over his head, ignoring the haphazard state of her attire and as her hands flicked up at the ceiling a light bulb short-circuited loudly sparking. Bobby instantly pushed his body over Patricia's hiding her from danger and detection. His elbow pushed into the start button and the copier hummed to life and started spitting out blank pages of copies.

"Stop worrying," Tricia nipped at the young man's ear playfully. Bobby swung her off the copier and her legs remained wrapped around his torso as he wrapped his arms around her shoulders from underneath her armpits. Tricia giggled softly as she started to tug on the boy's belt but her movement with her hands again sparked another fire in the room's recycle bin.

"Fire," She whispered in shock. Bobby instantly dropped her and grabbed the nearest fire extinguisher. Tricia gasped seeing flashes of adults hearing noises and storming into the room. She instantly reacted, fixing her attire and focusing her mental energy on magically replacing Bobby's shirt onto his torso. Everything seemed normal enough as the Sophomore Chemistry teacher stormed into the room with the academic advisor.

"What happened?" The chemistry teacher demanded.

"Something sparked out of the copier, I don't know what happened." Tricia defended snapping her fingers shakily at the copier. Evidence of a technical malfunction appeared instantly and before the teacher noticed they had not been there a moment before. Bobby rubbed his eyes confused as he ran his hand perplexed over his cotton polo shirt now magically back on his body.

"Are you all right?' The academic advisor placed a maternal hand onto Tricia's shoulder.

"Just shocked," Tricia nodded meekly staring at the spot where the fire had erupted. The blaze had been sparked from her hands and the young witch knew it.

"Would you like us to call one of your parents to get you?" The chemistry teacher questioned as he studied the charred recycling bin.

"She's the Mitchell twin, there are enough family members here in this school to attend to her getting home safely." The advisor noted.

"I can walk her out to her brother's car," Bobby offered.

"Are you all right son?" The chemistry teacher asked the boy with the fire extinguisher still clutched in his right hand.

"Yes, just surprised sir. Glad I could catch the fire in time," Bobby recovered quickly and smiled happily at the faculty member.

"Yes well good thing such responsible students were in here when this happened," The advisor smiled approvingly. Bobby nodded and carefully placed his arm around Patricia as he led her out into the crowded hallway. The last bell of the day had rung while the excitement in the copier room had exploded.

"I wasn't wearing a shirt a few minutes ago." Bobby commented.

"You were, you just don't remember because everything happened so quickly." Tricia dismissed. Her face was paler than usual and a worried frown was shadowing her usual happy features when she was around Bobby.

"There has been a lot of fire around us lately." Bobby clicked his tongue at the coincidence.

**October 11****th**

_Patience was sitting in the passenger side of Dervin, now her own Mustang car. It was raining outside and sitting with his shaggy hair and high school jacket was Dervin Rogers. The memory was in a haze of pink as Patience leaned over the stick shift and kissed Dervin. As they pressed their lips together the familiar and warm Mustang dissolved and the memory became darker. _

_ Dervin pulled away from Patience and shielded her body as fireballs started flying at the couple. Patience focused on a familiar street lamp, as Dervin crumpled to the ground and the blood started. _

_ Penelope was standing at the corner, her eyes empty and her body lifeless but still standing. Patience recognized this moment as one of the worst of her life and panic filled her. _

_ Cole appeared just as he had that faithful night. _

_ "Put pressure on where he's bleeding," Cole commanded. Patience was on her knees, pressing her palms into the open wound. She could feel the beating of her first love's heart fading, as the life was escaping him. The bright lights of the ambulance, the shrieking of the sirens made everything a brilliant red and blue and the scene came alive with the chaos. But the scene had changed as new demons, unknown demons, started surrounding the lifeless Penelope down the street. Patience's hands were covered in blood and no one came to her rescue, no Chris, no father, no Paramedics. _

_ "Save your sister," Dervin coughed up blood as he struggled against Patience hands. _

_ "But you're dying." Patience cried. _

_ "She's going to die too without you. Save your sister." Dervin repeated. _

_ "I can't move." Patience sobbed. Her hands were connected to the bleeding flesh of Dervin's chest as her eyes were glued to the scene down the street. The darkness of the corner swallowed the attack on Penelope. Knives were craving into the lifeless younger sister, as blood started to pour from her wounds Penelope screamed. A blood chilling scream as her eyes snapped back to life, blood red like the liquid that was pouring from her wounds. Patience was staring right at her sister. Patience felt the sticky blood flow under her knees. Her hands were covered with Dervin, her knees were covered with Penelope's and Patience could taste the salt of her own tears. _

_ "Save me," Penelope screamed. _

_ "Save her," Dervin whispered as he started to close his eyes. _

_ "Why isn't anyone helping me…?" Patience struggled to pull free from Dervin with no luck. The world swirled around Patience and the dream turned a pink haze again. _

_ The manor's grandfather clock was chiming and everything seemed almost the same but different. The décor was older, much more antique than Patience remembered and then suddenly her mother appeared. A much younger Phoebe Halliwell with her hair in childish pigtails and her younger body sporting a pink shirt with black workout pants stood anxious. Phoebe held the Book of Shadows underneath her arm. Piper appeared next, also much younger, with bangs and an air of lack of confidence. Patience watched her mother and her aunt stand lost, confused and painfully hurt. Their eyes were fixated on something and as Patience turned she saw her aunt Prue, just as young as she had ever seen her sobbing over a body. _

_ Patience stepped forward and noticed the body was a man. The black hair peeked out from underneath the blanket and his black boots were sticking up from the other side. Patience watched the sorrowful memory of her dream, watched as she could feel even in the dream that her aunt Prue had lost her first love that day and nothing, not even magic could save him. The sobbing Prue transformed into a vision of Patience herself and the body on the ground grew red hair and wore a green pair of sneakers far too familiar. It became a moment of watching her first love die that only lasted seconds. The body on the ground, the dead body on the manor floor shifted and became Prue's body. _

_ "Aunt Prue died in the same place as Andy…" Patience realized as she watched the nightmare evolve around her. For now the dead body was not Prue but Penelope. Patience heard the crying around her, felt the sadness consume her…_

"Patience," Penelope shook her oldest sister. Patience was crying uncontrollably into her pillow. Her eyes were still shut tightly, as the girl was still asleep and consumed by her own nightmare.

"Patience, please…" Penelope begged holding her hand to her sister's wet cheek. Patience choked on her own tears and startled herself awake. Her eyes blinking rapidly, spilling tears over her already red cheeks as she threw her arms around her younger sister.

"A nightmare," Penelope soothed.

"Did I scream?" Patience whispered a sob.

"No," Penelope stroked her sister's short hair trying to calm her. Patience took in a shaky breath and pulled up her covers to welcome her sister into her bed.

"Did I die in your dream?" Penelope whispered suddenly in the darkness. Patience shivered and Penelope knew.

"Why would you ask that?" Patience asked.

"Because you died in mine." Penelope whispered.

"But they are just dreams." Patience shook her head but nevertheless she clicked on a lamp and clutched an old teddy bear.

"Nightmares. They are just nightmares. I could sense you, I could send your terrified dream self." Penelope whispered.

"Could you?" Patience snuggled closer to her sister. "Did I cause your nightmare?"

"Maybe," Penelope shrugged tilting her head to rest upon Patience's shoulder.

"I'm sorry, was your nightmare awful?" Patience whispered.

"Yours was worse, I could feel it." Penelope tried to explain. "I walked through your wall to get to you."

"The wall?" Patience frowned as something vibrated from her night table. Both girls jumped involuntarily.

"I walked through the wall, that's why Wyatt is calling…" Penelope explained again. Patience hands shook as she shot out her fingers to answer her cell phone.

"Wyatt it's two in the morning," Patience whispered into the phone as she stared at her alarm clock.

"You sound awake, are you all right?" He demanded. Wyatt sounded tense and tired, more than usual.

"Are you all right?" Patience asked louder.

"I felt the surge in power," Wyatt explained.

"Penelope walked through a wall, we were having nightmares and I think our cupid powers and our close proximity to each other might have affected our state of emotional power surges." Patience chattered.

"Nightmares?" Wyatt sighed.

"Yes…" Patience said slowly noticing the implications of her cousin's voice.

"Through a wall? She physically walked through a wall?" Wyatt asked suddenly.

"I think so…" Patience stated slowly but handed her phone over to Penelope.

"Yes, physically through a wall." Pen explained now.

"Would you think its personal gain to cast a dreamless sleep spell?" Penelope asked. Silence as Penelope nodded into her sister's shoulder.

"Wyatt wants to say good night," Penelope handed the phone back over to Patience. Patience pressed the tiny device up to her ear and waited for an explanation.

"Try to sleep, if anything happens just call me." Wyatt yawned into the phone before hanging up.

Eyes were blinking outside the window of the young cupid witches room, watching the scared girls fight to go back to sleep. The yellow eyes seem to curl up into a smile before disappearing into the night.

The morning light streamed into the attic and Wyatt sat quietly gulping down coffee and examining the Book of Shadows. The dark circles under his blue eyes matched the black of the coffee and for living on the beach he was paler than usual. Wyatt pushed his thumb against the bridge of his nose and into his eye a habit he'd had since infanthood when he was exhausted.

A similarly looking tired Chris orbed into almost directly into his older brother.

"What the…" Chris grumbled stumbling against the windows.

"Watch where you're orbbing moron," Wyatt snapped shoving his elbow into his brother's ribcage.

"It's not like you're actually suppose to be up here, sunshine." Chris punched his brother's shoulder. Wyatt tensed up his shoulders and took a step away from the book.

"Speaking of that, when you orb up here it's because you're sneaking around…" Wyatt's eyebrows shot up as he glared over his coffee at Chris.

"And when you are here at dawn it's because you're fixated on some big bad you're trying to protect everyone else against. So were you waiting for me to get up to tell me what's going on?" Chris crossed his arms. The brothers had a stare down match for a few moments until Chris broke the intensity by yawning causing Wyatt to yawn. Chris took the opportunity to move forward towards the book to stare at what Wyatt had been studying.

"Are you worried about the Source?" Chris asked reading carefully over the open page. The demon, known as the source of evil had almost an entire section of the Book of Shadows devoted to him. The first entry dated from the time of Melinda Warren herself.

"You could say that," Wyatt sighed as he started pacing around the attic. He stopped starring intently on the place where the sword Excalibur was magically hidden.

"What are you up to exactly?" Chris asked nonchalantly as he started quietly flipping pages. Wyatt remained entranced by the cluttered spot of the attic until finally he put down his coffee cup.

"Just doing some research, making sure I'm up to date…" Wyatt commented back slowly. He stepped forward and the cluttered magically evaporated from his path and the sword almost jumped into his hands. Chris was busy reading from an entry in the book and jotting down notes to notice his brother's actions. As Wyatt clutched his hands around the hilt of the sword and lifted it he remembered to question his brother back.

"What are you doing?" He mumbled.

"Nothing out of the norm really, just a quick lead on something…" Chris mumbled the response back as he furiously started writing something else down. All the while the two Halliwell brothers were standing in the attic being self-involved their younger sister had heard them rustling and sat outside the door. Melinda Halliwell was an experienced eavesdropper being the youngest of Piper's children and related to any Halliwell's at all. She peeked around and watched her distracted brothers as she bite at her nails. Melinda stared on confused by the manic behaviors of her older responsible siblings. Wyatt was waving around the sword while Chris had moved along to start collecting potion ingredients.

"What are we hunting?" Melinda finally spoke up as she lifted herself up off the ground. Wyatt majestically dropped the sword down against his thigh and spun around to stare at his sister. While Chris in a skilled and experienced way collected all the bottles he needed in an instant before turning around.

"We are not fighting any demons together little sister," Wyatt stated decisively. His sense had come back to him as he waved his birthright away and back into its obscure corner of the attic.

"Unless you count Mr. Henderson's chemistry class as demonic…" Chris winked at his sister and walked quickly towards her. Chris clutched at the side of his jacket that held all his demon-hunting tools. Chris recognized that Wyatt was out of his trance and might ask more questions.

"But you were both just, what about the Source?" Melinda demanded.

"The Source isn't an issue yet," Wyatt strode forward stretching out his arm trying to catch Chris. But Chris was use to this mode of capture and easily ducked away, kissing his younger sister on the forehead and jogging down the stairs.

"Not going to follow him?" Melinda asked her oldest brother.

"Do you know what he's been doing?" Wyatt stared down at her, resembling his father so much Melinda looked away guiltily.

"I know about as much about what Chris is doing as I know about what you're doing." Melinda finally responded tartly.

"Mels," Wyatt sighed.

"And you know why he walked down the steps, because he knows just like I know, that you're not going to follow. Because both my big strong powerful brothers are terrifying of their mother." Melinda stuck her tongue out at Wyatt and started skipping down the stairs.

"Melinda," Wyatt gritted his teeth.

"Want to treat me like an annoying little sister, that's what you get." Melinda tossed her hair and disappeared around the corner of the hallway.

The morning dragged on for the Halliwell cousins, as they all shook sleep from their bodies as they trudged through their activities. Wyatt fought to stay awake through his morning Philosophy course. Chris survived on a rush of adrenaline as he tortured a lower level demon into divulging more information about the whereabouts of Nemod. Patience skipped school discreetly and spent the day underneath a tree in Dervin's lap. Henry had a track meet where he powered through his run by consuming energy drinks he was usually against. Melinda slept through three of her six courses of the day, in a dazed confused sleep that left her more exhausted than before. Pandora floated through her classes in a daze and without much attention to any particular moment. Penelope used magic to keep herself awake through her magic school courses. While Patricia maintained close to Bobby keeping her emotionally awake and alert.

Paige strolled into her brother-in-law's office with a dozen pumpkins floating around her head. Chris was sitting in a open magic school robe his jeans and Smashing Pumpkins t-shirt visible. Leo was glaring at his son's shoes pointedly resting on the edge of his desk.

"You're going to fall and crack your head open." Paige snapped at her nephew. Chris rolled his eyes and smiled.

"It's good that I'm self healing then…" He laughed.

"Christopher," Leo warned. Chris sighed and let the front legs of his chair slam back into the ground and he ran his hand through his hair.

"Are you ready yet for these progress reports? I have stuff to do…" Chris grumbled to his father.

"Are you ready to share what stuff exactly you've been up to?" Leo retorted back. Chris snapped up a pen and started tapping it impatiently against the desk.

"Then you can hold on another second while I finish grading this paper." Leo went back to jotting down notes. Chris leaned back in his chair and glanced over at his aunt Paige.

"Is mom coming to help?" Chris asked. Piper stepped into the room carrying tray of food and a bag full of different bottles.

"Peanut, are you giving your dad a hard time?" Piper sighed looking over at her husband and son as she settled her bags down. Paige stifled a laugh as she pulled out a craving knife and started piercing into the pumpkin.

"No ma'am," Chris lied without hesitation. Leo looked up with his eyebrows arched up.

"You know there's something comforting in knowing that my kids aren't the only ones that lie…" Paige smiled at her sister. Piper shook her head.

"What were you and Wyatt doing in the attic this morning?" Piper asked as she offered Paige a snack.

"Um, we weren't in the attic…" Chris stuttered.

"Convincing," Paige laughed.

"All right, you two keep up with your secrets then." Piper sighed ignoring her son and turning to Paige. "Where is Phoebe?"

"How does she do that?" Chris asked Leo.

"The way she always knows everything?" Leo winked.

"Melinda," Chris frowned sinking down in his chair and crossing his arms.

Piper and Paige started busily working on the Halloween dance plans. While Leo started prompting Chris with student's names and jotting down the comments Chris was giving. It was as peaceful as Magic School ever was until the flurry of orbbing lights, red transports and screaming came raining down upon the headmaster's office.

"You set my car on fire!" HJ was hollering.

"You don't even have that power, how'd you get my powers?" Pandora was demanding of her twin sister.

"She was trying to get his pants off, that's how." Patience commented breathlessly watching Tricia's cheeks burn red.

Tricia stood with Phoebe's arm protectively around her shoulders. The usually calmer twin was flustered, her hair sticking up with static and her checks blotching from the blushing. The screaming had started in the parking lot of the high school and kept steady until Tricia had reached a boiling point that led her to orb, a power she had lost three years prior. Tricia had unconsciously and uncontrollably orbed to her aunt Phoebe, the nearest charmed one. Her powers had then seen fit to bring her to the other two charmed ones and it wasn't until her upset siblings and cousins had followed her had Tricia suddenly realized why her magic had brought her here. The cousins were still shouting and bickering as Paige and Piper demanded what was going on. Leo and Chris watched interested from a distance, but didn't speak.

"You can't be serious?" Melinda's voice suddenly squeaked. The other cousins stopped their bickering and fighting with each other and with Tricia to stare at Melinda.

"I am." Patricia finally spoke. There was a silence that hushed over the charmed clan, the type of silence that rarely struck the rowdy group. Patricia's cheeks regain some of their natural coloring as she took a deep breath. Her wispy brown hair settled suddenly, as she tilted her head up and stuck out her chin defiantly. The twin's hazel eyes fixated on the older women in the room, the Charmed Ones.

"Mom, Aunt Piper, Aunt Phoebe. I don't want to be a witch anymore, will you bind my powers?" She demanded more than asked.

"What?" The entire family said in unison. The frozen disbelief of Paige was a polar opposite of the rage of Pandora. The fiery twin lunged at her sister instantly, power shaking from her in sparks that resembled firecrackers.

"You selfish whore!" Pandora screamed. Leo and Chris jumped into action faster than anyone around the passionate Dora. Chris orbed in front of Dora and let the younger girl slam into him instead of her sister. The two flew into one of the nearest couches with a loud bang. Piper had snapped up her hands and had magically frozen her furious niece.

"You cant' be serious Tricia," Chris grumbled from his spot on the ground. His arms were tightly wrapped around the trashing Dora.

"Now wait a second," Paige held up her hand.

"I don't want to wait anymore. I don't want to be a witch." Tricia shook her head.

"Mom, you can't let her just give up her powers." Henry begged.

"It isn't a choice to be a witch Tricia, it's who you are." Leo commented softly.

"It's not who I am, it's who all of you are." Tricia glared at her cousins with a distaste and mistrust no one had ever seen before.

"Maybe we should talk about this with just Patricia," Phoebe suggested silently, still holding on to the girl.

"Aunt Phoebe you can't be serious!" Dora struggled.

"We can't afford to be down a power with the new source rising…" Chris started arguing before snapping his mouth shut.

"The new what now?" Piper spun around to stare at her son.

"Even if I did have my powers I wouldn't fight him." Patricia shrugged nonchalantly.

"A new source Christopher Perry?" Piper's voice was quickly going up an octave.

"Piper, one problem at a time." Leo suggested from his desk.

"Did you know about this Leo?" Piper flipped around her long hair swinging around like it often had during the prime years of fighting demons.

"No, he didn't know." Paige sighed.

"Did you Paige?" Piper glared at her younger sister.

"Piper, we were going to tell you…" Phoebe started.

"Did everyone in this room know?" Piper demanded flinging her hands up into the air. No one answered her, most of the cousins shifted uncomfortably under their aunts gaze except for Patricia who meet Piper's gaze.

"I don't want to fight this fight aunt Piper. I want to be normal, help me?" Patricia begged. Piper was caught off guard by the sincerity of the request, a request that echoed so many of her old sentiments about being a witch and charmed one.

"You aren't normal, you're charmed." Piper found herself responding.

"I'm not, you are." Patricia replied, holding her gaze steady on the family member she knew might side with her.

"Tricia, you're just as much charmed as mom and the aunts are…" Henry argued from behind her.

"Is this all because of Bobby?" Patience asked.

"Why would this be about Bobby?" Paige was rubbing her temples.

"Patricia can't control her emotions around him and because she has been refusing to even acknowledge she's a witch, she's unable to control her powers around him." Patience explained.

"I'm not a witch." Tricia stated simply.

"You selfish, misguided, spineless jellyfish." Dora spat at her sister.

"We should talk about this without everyone in the room." Phoebe clapped her hands.

"Yes, Phoebe's right." Leo nodded as he started ushering the cousins out of the room. Chris stubbornly orb away from his father though, trying to remain in the room.

"You can't let her do this, you can't let her abandon her birth right." Chris argued.

"Now you want to talk? Now you want to meddle?" Piper glared at him.

"This is your birth right Chris, you want to fight demons everyday. You want to face the source again. You live for it. I don't want anything to do with it. I haven't intentionally used my powers since the last time you got us mixed up in the Underworld." Tricia didn't even turn to look at him.

"I didn't get you mixed up anywhere…" Chris whispered.

"It always comes back down to you and Wyatt. You antagonize the demons because you're trying to prove you're as good as Wyatt and well they are always going to come after the most powerful and so they come after Wyatt. This isn't my fight, it's yours." Patricia explained.

"Patricia, that's enough." Paige snapped. Chris gave his cousin a hurt look of disappointment.

"Think whatever you want Tricia, you're a witch with or without your powers you'll always be a witch." With that he orbed away. Leo had succeeded in emptying his office of the rest of the children, leaving just Patricia standing in front of the Charmed Ones.

"I'm asking the charmed ones to help me, isn't that what you do?" Patricia demanded, crossing her arms and still looking defiant and determined.


	8. As Your Lies Crumble Down

_Author's Note: It's a long chapter, though I am still going to try to have another one up by Halloween (It being a Halloween story and all). Sorry for the long delay, this was a complicated part of the plot that I was worried was taking to long to work out. Please let me know what you think? It really does help gain perspective and know if I'm writing something worth while. Remember, I do update on my twitter... _

**As Your Lies Crumble Down **

_Face Down, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus _

**February 2022 **

Halliwells was packed. Valentine's Day was one of the busiest nights of the year for any restaurant in San Francisco. Sitting tucked in the corner of the main dining room, Patricia Mitchell sat poised in a sparkling green dress across from a handsome, even if somewhat awkward, young man.

A string quartet was playing softly in unison with the clanking of champagne flutes and silverware. The young couple was sharing a piece of cake, when the young man dropped his fork unexpectedly. Tricia jumped her hands reacting before her head and the knife froze into an icicle.

"What the hell?" Owen asked his hand prodding at the knife.

"Oh no," Tricia hiccupped and the knife disappeared into swirling lights.

"Cool, it's like magic!" Own announced loudly. Most of the tables around the teenagers ignored them, but one set of crystal blue eyes had snapped to attention at the word magic from across the dining room.

"You know about magic?" Tricia swallowed, her hands shaking slightly. The entire night she had been plagued with visions of a traumatizing dating past. Anytime there was an awkward movement of an embrace or kiss, she would remember the darkness that consumed her with Adam and she would shiver uncontrollably.

"Demon," Tricia snapped her hands up instinctively but nothing happened to her date. Owen sat looking oddly confused at her.

"You know, you're really good looking and everything but you're a little to crazy for me. You jump at every little noise and it doesn't seem like you even enjoy it when I kiss you…" Owen started explaining as he uncomfortably shifted his weight around before standing.

"And now you're talking about demons and earlier you called me Adam…" He explained apologetically.

"I didn't mean to," Tricia bite her lip nervously noticing Wyatt had excused himself from his date and was heading over to her.

"Yeah you're pretty and everything Trish but I'm just not feeling it you know," Owen shoved his hands into his pockets and moved to walk away. Patricia shot out her hand to detain the boy, but didn't get far before he shoved her back into her seat. The shock of the force behind his rejection of her sent the girl unceremoniously into the ground. Wyatt was there in an instant carefully picking her up and threatening the careless boy walking away.

"Wyatt, please." Tricia begged for him to keep his voice down.

"He pushed you on purpose that little punk, he better hope to God that I don't ever see his sorry ass again." Wyatt fumed.

"Please, you're making a scene." Tricia squeaked. She started crying from embarrassment of being left in the middle of the date, at her hyped up nerves of being in love with a demon and of resentment towards her magic. Wyatt quieted down and petted the girl softly.

"I'll take you home," He whispered ushering her away from the surprised and critical stares of the other Halliwell patrons.

**October 12 **

The microwave beeped loudly demanding attention, HJ slammed his thumb into a button letting the door fly open and the aroma of melted cheese to roam the kitchen. He left the microwave open as he flipped the page of a book on the counter.

Dora slipped into the kitchen, slipping a headband around her presently red locks. She jumped up onto the counter and stared over her brother's arms.

"We can't let her do this. Mom wouldn't let her do this," Dora started commenting.

"Hold on," HJ hushed her. He flipped the page again and read quietly. After a few seconds, the young man let out a frustrated sighed. He leaned back and grabbed his bowl of easy macaroni.

"So?" Dora demanded crossing her arms.

"Without Tricia's powers, we can't possibly be really charmed. I can't figure out what would happen to your powers without Tricia." HJ explained in annoyance.

"I can tell you what would happen, mine wouldn't work. I would be left as a sitting duck." Dora's nostrils flared angrily.

"Mom would never let her just give up like this. It's part of who she is, to be a witch." He clanked his fork thoughtfully against the counter.

"But Aunt Piper might decided it's the best plan, not to force her. You know how Aunt Piper wants everyone to just be normal." Dora questioned.

"But Wyatt, Chris and Melinda have never had their powers bound for longer than a week. Aunt Piper would never take away someone's birthright." HJ refused.

"If she becomes dangerous? Attempts to expose us?" Dora whispered her fear.

"She wouldn't." HJ stated simply.

"If she wants it bad enough, I think she might. I would." Dora tugged the fork away from her older brother and stole some of his midnight snack.

"We just have to make Tricia realize that being magical is who she is, that's all." HJ commented as he started reading the book again.

"Yes, of course. Why didn't I think of that?" Dora rolled her eyes. HJ looked up from his reading and stared at his sister.

"When did you two stop getting along?" HJ demanded.

"What?" Dora frowned.

"You use to be attached at the hip, for everything. Your powers were even magically inclined to each other and now. Well now, Tricia is setting things on fire and orbbing. While you," HJ frowned.

"While I don't do anything I haven't done before. Do you think she's more powerful than I am?" Dora snapped her fingers producing a little flame.

"Powers…" HJ muttered to himself flipping through the book again.

"We haven't been close in years, since before the incident." Dora grabbed a bag of marshmallows from a bowl near her. She started to pull one by one out of the bag and set them on fire for seconds before blowing them out and popping them into her mouth.

"But why?" HJ asked. Dora shrugged.

"She didn't like magic. Her and Melinda were on this kick together. Mels, well she grew out of it realizing that to be accepted by her ever so clever older brothers would have to be some powerful witch." Dora started explaining.

"Wyatt and Chris would accept Melinda even if she wasn't some powerful witch." HJ protested.

"But they would always be protecting her, never letting her be in their little secret demon hunting club." Dora crinkled up her nose.

"That isn't true…" Henry protested again.

"All right, well that's what it feels like. Anyway, Tricia never grew out of it. She runs from everything magical and it's only been worse since the incident. While she's running from everything magical, she's left me behind. I like magic too much for her to care for me. I don't even dream with her anymore." Dora explained.

"Dream with her?" HJ stole a marshmallow from his sister.

"About three years ago, right before that Nemod thing. For a few months, almost half a year Tricia and I were sharing dreams. I can't explained how it happened but we would swap between each other's dreams, it must have had something to do with our magical connection but since she decided not to use her magic at all it stopped." Dora explained.

"But she does still use her magic." HJ pressed a button on his phone, prompting footage of the forest fire from a few days back to start playing.

"Not because she wants to, emotionally her magic still gets used. But Patricia makes no effort or choice about the use of her magic. That's why she hates it so much, she can't control it." Dora patted her brother's hand lovingly explaining the situation to him.

"How had I not noticed that she had stopped using her magic?" HJ asked.

"Between your track meets, and the girl of the week, and the demon of the day. You've got your own thing going on." Dora winked at him.

"But I'm the big brother," HJ puckered his lips in distaste.

"We've never focused too much on the magical part of being siblings." Dora dropped a flaming marshmallow and HJ reacting quickly waved it into the sink.

"Why do you think that is?" HJ asked.

"We've got lives to think about, which reminds me are you in love with that girl?' Dora asked.

"That's none of your business. Have you stopped doing Quincy Donvan's homework?" HJ demanded.

"That's none of your business." Dora stuck out her tongue.

Henry Sr. popped his head into the kitchen to see two of his three teenage children still awake.

"You two, go to bed. Pandora stop eating those marshmallows, you're going to rot out your teeth." Henry sighed.

"Night dad," Dora jumped down from the counter and scampered past her father. Henry walked into the kitchen and stared at his oldest son. HJ was deep in contemplation about his sisters and his family's magic.

"Something wrong sport?" Henry asked.

"You can't let her do this." HJ blurted out. Henry leaned onto the counter, on his elbows and started reading the book in front of his son.

"Magically bound families and destinies." Henry read aloud.

"Nothing in there makes me think that Dora would be all right without Tricia's magic. Maybe if they weren't twins, it wouldn't matter. But they are twins and I think it does matter." HJ threw up his hands.

"And you're worried?" Henry asked his son.

"Aren't you? I mean, Dora's a walking storm with a target on her back. If her powers don't work because Tricia has given hers up, I can't be everywhere she is…" HJ started pacing.

"And what do you think will happen to Tricia?" Henry asked.

"I think she'll regret it." HJ shrugged. "I'm sure she would."

"It doesn't have to a forever thing you know. Your mom was saying that maybe they would bind her powers until she's out of high school. Give her a chance to not have to deal with the emotional strain of being a teenage girl and magical." Henry commented.

"But the rest of the girls…" HJ frowned.

"Patience is a walking magical mess." Henry laughed.

"But she can control her powers, she understands them. If Tricia doesn't learn them, what happens if we need her? What happens when the source figures out that the Charmed tribe has a non-magical link and uses her against us?" HJ paced around the kitchen table and Henry straightened up.

"Your sister has to make her own decision." Henry sighed.

"Not when her decision affects the rest of us." HJ clenched his jaw. "Night Dad."

The young man stormed out of the kitchen as the replica of the grandfather clock started chiming midnight.

**October 13**

_Chris was driving the old Jeep and Wyatt was complaining in the passenger seat. Wyatt was decked out a knight's costume, while Chris was sporting his father's old World War II uniform. The brothers were bickering about their costumes, an argument that HJ remembered well. _

_ "You would think they could get along on such a big Wiccan holiday." Patience sighed. HJ stared at Patience with her old long hair dressed in glitter and flowers finishing off her pixie look. The jeep was speeding onto the bridge as the fog started to roll in. HJ opened his mouth to shout, to make the memory stop but no noise escaped him. The events proceeded as the fog overtook the bridge, the car and everything else. The attack was sudden and would have been devastating had the car not been filled with magical children. Someone appeared right in front of the jeep and Chris swerved and the car spun out of control. The jeep slammed into the side of the bridge and HJ was smashed into the window. The blood was dripping down the side of his head as Patience was screaming besides him. Chris had been knocked out onto the wheel and Wyatt was blasting at something unseen on the bridge. _

_ The screaming was louder, different than it was suppose to be in the memory. When suddenly the fog cleared and HJ was no longer on the bridge. The dreamscape was empty, unfamiliar and strange until it reformed into the Manor's attic and suddenly Pandora appeared. _

_ "Hey big brother," Dora smiled deviously. _

_ "Hey what are you doing?" HJ asked confused and perplexed by the sudden change of events. _

_ "You're dreaming." Dora explained. _

_ "And you're not?" HJ demanded. _

_ "Oh, I am. But I'm just better at dreaming than you are." Dora smiled brightly as she started to look through the Book in front of her. _

_ "Pandora, have you snuck into my dreams?" HJ demanded alarmed. _

_ "It's not really sneaking in. It took me a little while. It was harder than it usually is with Patricia. What were you dreaming about?" Dora asked. _

_ "Nothing," HJ snapped. Dora licked her lips and gave him a little smile. _

_ "Nightmare then?" She whispered. _

_ "Dora, why are you in my dream?" HJ shifted his shoulders uncomfortably and took a weary step forward. _

_ "I wanted to try something, hold on." Dora shut her eyes tightly. Suddenly Tricia wandered into the room. _

_ "Patricia?" HJ questioned. _

_ "Hey big bro," Tricia smiled eerily resembling Dora. _

_ "Hi…" HJ squinted his eyes and watched as Tricia wandered over to Dora, nonchalantly. The way that Tricia was walking seemed odd, vaguely unfamiliar and familiar at the same time. _

_ "I think we should use this spell." Tricia pointed at the book. _

_ "Yeah, maybe that would work." Dora nodded bumping her fist into Tricia's. _

_ "Dora…." HJ frowned. _

_ "We're going to say a little spell." Dora explained. _

_ "Tricia doesn't do spells." HJ shook his head starring at the twin sister with the light brown hair and freckles. Tricia started mimicking Henry's facial expressions, mocking her brother effortlessly. _

_ "It's not you!" Henry shouted. Dora laughed. _

_ "She's a reflection of me, but she's a dream Tricia for me. So I think she should work the same way. Though I'm not even sure if this dream spell casting will work." Dora tried to explain again. _

_ "I don't think this is a good idea." Henry shook his head. _

_ "I can create a dream you too, I just thought you would want to help." Dora frowned. HJ sighed loudly and walked towards the book. _

_ "The only reason I'm doing this is because I don't think it will work." HJ stated decisively. _

_ "And because you don't want to go back to your nightmare." Tricia's dream self patted her brother on the back. _

_ "Stop that," Henry smacked Dora. Dora giggled and pointed at the spell on the page. _

_ "Is this really the book?" Henry asked staring down at the very real looking book. The pages were aged and the spell was beautifully written and illustrated. _

_ "Sort of," Dora nodded. "I can't keep this up much longer, so can we just say the spell?" _

_ "All right, what is this spell for?" HJ ran his finger along the words. _

_ "To save our magic." Dora nudged Henry. HJ wrapped his arms around both sisters and hugged them as he started to chant the spell without another thought. He could feel the presence of Dora invading his thoughts, making him forget to question the morality of what they were doing but there was nothing that he could do. _

_ "For the witch that has forgotten, where her powers were gotten. Let her see, what the fee for her magic might end be. For the witch that turns her back, let her see what might be fact. In the night these witches cry, let her see why she must try." _

_ The three siblings chanted the spell a few times and nothing happened. Finally when the trance was broken, Henry shoved Pandora. _

_ "You should work on your spell writing." He mocked. _

_ "Why would you think I wrote the spell?" Dora tapped at the book in front of her. _

_ "Were gotten? What did you get in English last year?" Henry crossed his arms. _

_ "I did fine in English, thanks very much." Dora replied defensively shutting the book before her brother could mock any other part of the spell. _

_ "Sure you did." Henry rolled his eyes. "So is something suppose to happen?" _

_ "I don't know. I've never tried to do dream magic before." _

_ The scene faded again and HJ felt a sticky residue on his head, where the window had shattered on the car. The screaming was back and he knew the spell that his younger sister had cast had broken. He was glad the girl couldn't follow him here to this memory of a night he would rather forget. There was another movement as something slammed into the jeep side where HJ was before the car started falling off the bridge and into the bay. As the jeep plunged into the water and HJ felt the cold liquid hitting his face, he saw everything going dark… _

The phone rang loudly into Henry's ear. The boy shifted around frantically looking for the mobile. Pulling it out from underneath his sheets, he answered it without looking at the screen.

"Jay, Jay. I need your help." Amelle's voice was frantic.

"I'll be right there." Henry didn't even think before he orbed out of his warm bed and to his charge.

Coop was rubbing the sleep from his eyes as he slipped a tie over his neck. Phoebe stepped out of the bathroom running a comb through her wet hair.

"Will you wake the girls up? I don't think they are out of bed," Phoebe sighed starring at the alarm clock on her night table.

"If Patience doesn't stop having dreams about Dervin, I'm not sure I'm ever going to have a good night's sleep again." Coop yawned.

"Maybe we should whip up a potion, I mean it's not like we don't have two more daughters that are going to be teenagers in love too…" Phoebe frowned a bit.

"Cupids don't usually have daughters." Coop nodded thoughtfully.

"I'll call Paige later and she can help with it." Phoebe winked wandering back into the bathroom. Coop walked into the hallway of the large flat and knocked on his daughter's doors.

"Let's go girls, time for school." Coop warned. Primrose scampered out of her room already decked out in a pink tutu skirt and white turtleneck. Coop laughed at her grand entrance into the hallway.

"Good morning, bug." Coop swooped down and gave his youngest a kiss on the head.

"Morning daddy, do you think Mommy would braid my hair?" Primrose grinned a toothless grin.

"Ah that's why the little monster is awake so early." Patience grumbled as she shuffled towards the bathroom.

"Patience, you shouldn't call your sister a monster." Coop rolled his eyes.

"Maybe if she wasn't such a little terror and stayed out of my stuff," Patience snapped her fingers and a charm bracelet that Primrose was wearing flew through the air.

"Magic, Patience." Coop frowned yet again.

"I was going to give it back!" Primrose cried trying to catch the bracelet before it was out of her grasp. But the charm bracelet flew fast and back into Patience's room.

"Bug why don't you go see your mother about your hair, we'll have a chat about staying out of your grumpy big sister's room later?" Coop winked at her. Patience yawned and as she slammed the door of the bathroom grumbled.

"Take the baby's side. You always do."

Coop glared at the solid wood door of the bathroom his daughter was in. There were plenty of reasons why Coop was annoyed with his oldest, the latest being her moodiness in the morning but the greatest her intensifying feelings for Dervin which only meant one thing to such an experienced Cupid. He dwelled on his feelings towards the relationship of his daughter and Dervin, trying to control his feelings by imagining they were any other young couple but with little success. Until quite suddenly, Coop realized that Penelope had not come out of the room with Primrose. Coop pushed the door opened a bit and wandered into the violently pink and purple room. The room was still dark as he strode towards the bed nearest the window.

"Darling, it's time to get up for school." Coop carefully lowered his hand to shake the girl awake. He didn't like startling the girls awake, especially not with the amount of times that Patience had literally slammed into the ceiling. But as he dropped his hand onto the bed, he didn't find his daughter.

"Penelope?" Coop's calm demeanor evaporated in seconds. He ripped the blankets away from the bed and discovered only pillows and only a slight aura of his daughter.

"PHOEBE!" Coop called out in a panic.

"Stay here," Phoebe's command rang loudly as she ran down the hall to Coop. Before the experience charmed one even reached the empty bed she was calling for her sister.

"Paige!" Phoebe shouted. Phoebe didn't know that Paige was more than busy with her own missing child.

"She's gone," Dora stared at the empty twin bed. Paige walked into her daughter's room.

"Do you know where your ridiculous brother has run off to now?" Paige was demanding.

"Mom," Dora whispered.

"If he keeps running off without telling me where he is going, I swear I'm going to ground him, orbbing powers and all." Paige was muttering.

"Why aren't you girls getting ready for school. I'm sure you're flighty brother will be back to take you to school." Paige commented as she finally turned around to stare at Tricia's bed. But Tricia's bed was also empty.

"Pandora," Paige's voice was weary, tired of the same fight. She turned to glare at her rebellious daughter, arms crossed already.

"Mom," Dora's voice cracked guiltily.

"Pandora Helen Mitchell, where are your brother and sister?" Paige demanded.

"I don't know." Dora whispered desperate. Paige's face changed from angry to alarm.

"Henry!" Paige shouted at the ceiling of the room. Her husband came running into the room but it wasn't for him that she was calling.

Sitting at a little café, Verity Vanguard sat stirring her tea calmly waiting. Her golden eyes scanned the sidewalk, searching until she noticed a bright red Giants baseball jogging around the corner.

"Are you ready to order Miss?" The server had stopped at her table abruptly.

"My date just got here, so a few more minutes." Verity smiled sweetly. The server looked doubtful for a minute before dashing away. Chris entered the little front courtyard and ducked down and kissed Verity on the cheek.

"Sorry I'm late." Chris whispered before settling down across from her.

"I knew you would be." Verity shrugged.

"But you're still mad?" Chris sighed not even bothering to open the menu in front of him.

"Sometimes I wish I didn't know." Verity sighed.

"Pancakes will make it better?" Chris smiled at her.

"I anticipated that." Verity smiled brightly as the server dropped off a stack of pancakes in front of her. Chris winked at her.

"Didn't you order anything for yourself?" Chris asked her as he stabbed his fork into the first pancake. Verity shook her head calmly and twirled a spoon in her teacup.

"I won't need to…"Verity started sadly before she gasped. Chris' eyes flashed up instantly.

"What's wrong?' Chris slipped his hand over the Oracle Witch's pale wrist.

"The tea leaves indicate something bad is happening." Verity suggested.

"Verity, something bad is happening. The source is rising to power and if you're prophecy was correct well one of my family members is going to…" Chris couldn't even bring himself to finish the statement. Instead he tugged down his hat and proceeded to stab at the pancakes again.

"The tea leaves aren't about my prophecies." Verity frowned at him. "I'm an Oracle Witch Christopher, I don't often overreact about tea leaves without due cause."

Chris dropped his hand and scooted his chair closer to his morning date.

"I'm just not going to win this morning?" He questioned.

"You've canceled three of our dates this week, and it's only Thursday." Verity snapped at him.

"I've explained that those are…" Chris protested.

"And you just insulted my craft, I shouldn't even bother to tell you what the tea leaves mean." Verity crossed her arms resolutely. Chris rolled his eyes and leaned forward kissing the girl on the cheek. He reached his arm around her waist lovingly and started to turn on his boyish charms.

"What if I can make it up to you? I'm good at making up for things…" He whispered into her ear.

"With all the practice you've had in your life, I could only hope so." Verity tried to shake him off but started giggling at him.

"Some candles, a picnic maybe? How about some jewelry, you love presents." Chris mumbled. "I could decorate a frame for you, you know with that puffy paint stuff that Melinda use to use on everything…"

"You're going to make me a frame?' Verity giggled.

"Would it make you forgive me for my thoughtless and careless personality?" Chris smiled at her.

"I'm not easily swayed." Verity shook her head. Chris pushed her curls behind her ears and winked.

"How about a romantic dinner atop the golden gate bridge? I know a guy that can get us up there…" He coaxed.

"Do you now?" Verity laughed again.

"I do." Chris leaned in and kissed her on the lips softly to seal the deal.

"What if I want something else?" Verity questioned softly.

"Anything," Chris leaned back looking dazed for a moment.

"Introduce me to your family." Verity smiled triumphantly. Chris stopped smiling like a goof and stared at the girl.

"You've meet my family," He started.

"Not as your girlfriend." Verity shook head.

"But…" Chris started. But she placed a dainty finger onto his lips and pushed up his baseball cap.

"You said anything." She whispered.

"But," Chris started again.

"Three dates," Verity interjected.

"Tonight is going to be magnificent?" Chris attempted.

"If you cancel tonight, you'll introduce me to your family?" Verity asked tentatively. Chris straightened out his arms and shoved his hands into his pockets, a resentful habit from his teen years. He tapped his fingers onto the spoon on the table, carefully making a soft clanging noise as he thought.

"Yes, all right." Chris nodded.

"Kiss on it?" Verity asked. Chris leaned over and kissed her once more before pushing his chair back around to its original spot.

"And the tea?" Chris asked his mood changing back into the sullen tired individual he had been when he arrived.

"The tea leaves are suggesting that someone has been removed, possibly two someone's have been removed." Verity commented frowning. Chris pushed his palm against his right temple.

"Mom's calling…" Chris looked at his date apologetically.

"She usually is," Verity grumbled under her breath.

"Tonight for sure babe," Chris had pulled out some cash from his wallet and rested it on the table. The young man stood up and kissed his date on the head before jotting out.

"Tonight, we'll see sir." She sighed to him as Chris ducked behind something and orbed away.

A full bed was flipped over completely while blankets and glass were mingling on the ground of a carpet surprisingly free of blood. HJ was using his body to shield Amelle as he looked over the bed searching for attackers.

"I think they are gone," Amelle struggled against the teenage boy's strong arms. HJ coughed as Amelle punched the mattress making dust float into the air.

"Did you move the crystals?" HJ demanded letting the girl get up. He tilted up his chin and rotated his hands causing the room to rearrange into its original state.

"And where is your family?" HJ asked.

"My parents have already left for work." Amelle sighed as she wandered into her walk in closet.

"And the crystals?" HJ demanded again finding a pile of crystals in the corner of the girl's room.

"I thought they were a one time thing." Amelle shrugged coming out dressed in a pair of leggings and a long dress. She started to comb out her red curls, staring at herself in the mirror.

"No, not a one time thing. I need you to keep these were they were." HJ sighed moving around the room and placing the crystals in discreet corners. Amelle shrugged and started massaging a bruise that was forming on her shoulder.

"I can heal that," HJ shot out his hand and emitted a strong glow over the girl's arm.

"Did they say what they wanted?" HJ asked. Amelle shook her head, her green eyes burning into the mirror as she applied makeup.

"Big Egyptian looking guys don't seem to talk much, maybe because they have dog heads." Amelle snapped.

"Amelle, were you doing anything that might have provoked the attack? Magic maybe?" HJ asked. The girl's eyebrows knitted together carefully as she thought about it.

"No I don't think so. You think I'm magical?" She asked.

"I think you might be…" HJ sighed looking confused as ever. A car horn sounded loudly from the street.

"My ride is here, thanks for your help." Amelle kissed HJ on the cheek and started scurrying out.

"Do you think it's a good idea…" HJ started.

"They don't attack while I'm with people, and besides you're always there to save me." She replied flippantly. Grabbing her backpack and slipping on a pair of boots, the girl flew out the door and skipped into a car. HJ noticed a jock in a letterman jacket lean over and kiss the little red head. HJ felt a pang of jealousy run through him as he watched the girl drive away with the unknown boy.

"So far," HJ sighed as he heard his mother calling him.

The Halliwell-Mitchell clan had collectively converged in Leo Wyatt's office at magic school. Patience was clutching a crying Primrose, trying to calm her youngest sister. Pandora was clutching her own knees to her chest, rocking back and forth hiccupping in a panic. Melinda was patting her cousin on the back carefully trying to understand the situation. But Phoebe, Paige and Piper were quietly whispering among themselves and their husbands away from their children.

At the exact same moment the three white lighters of the cousins appeared in a swarm of orbs.

"What did you do?" Wyatt turned to glare at Chris.

"I was working, I couldn't have done anything…" Chris jumped behind HJ and held the younger man in between him and Wyatt.

"Why are we at magic school?" HJ wondered.

"Where did you go this morning, young man?" Paige turned on her oldest, her arms settled on her hips.

"Somebody is in trouble," Chris whistled lowly.

"What is wrong with Prim?" Wyatt hurried towards Patience and Primrose. Chris flipped around to notice the rest of his cousins and then the situation became clearer to him.

"Mom?" Chris asked.

"Do you three know where Patricia and Penelope are?" Phoebe asked worriedly staring at the spot where the boys had orbed in.

"What do you mean do we know where Tricia and Pen are?" Chris shut his eyes and started trying to sense his cousins. Wyatt had extended his arms to accept the crying Primrose from Patience.

"When I went to wake up Penelope, she was not in her bed." Coop explained.

"And Patricia was no where to be found in the apartment this morning either." Paige stated nervously.

"But if someone took them, Primrose or Pandora should have noticed." Phoebe shook her head.

"They didn't last time," Patience whispered. Chris' eyes fluttered open and he glared at his younger, usually favorite, cousin.

"Pandora?" HJ questioned his younger sister. His hazel eyes were intently focused on the girl that was rocking back and forth like a crazy person.

Kyle Broody stormed into the office, looking wild and flushed.

"Leo!" He said without noticing the large family audience.

"You!" Phoebe threw herself at the young white lighter but Coop grabbed her before she reached him.

"Phoebe, I can explain." Kyle held out his arms, ready for a fight.

"You useless whitelighter! Aren't you supposedly protecting my girls? Isn't that what you're suppose to be doing?" Phoebe shouted at him.

"Are they going to take me too?' Primrose clung to Wyatt. Wyatt hushed the little girl in his arms and instinctively pulled her in tighter.

"Of course not. No one took Penelope…" Wyatt stated confidently.

"He's right." Kyle nodded.

"What do you mean he's right?" Coop frowned. "She wasn't there and I can't sense her…"

"But I can." Kyle explained. "She disappeared from her bed, around 4:22 AM this morning."

"Where would she have gone this morning at that time?" Phoebe glared at him.

"I'm not sure, she's in a familiar place but I can't seem to find her." Kyle tried closing his eyes again and sensing her.

"What kind of whitelighter are you?" Phoebe spat at him.

"Phoebe that's enough." Leo stated firmly.

"The important thing is actually," Kyle opened his eyes and silently thanked Leo. "Wherever she is, and I assumed Patricia is as well, but they were both taken there by good magic"

"Good magic?" Paige turned immediately to glare at the twin nervously rocking.

"Are you suggesting it was a spell by one of these children that sent the girls away?" Piper waved at the cluster of her nieces, nephew, sons and daughter.

"I am suggesting that someone with powerfully strong good magic cast some sort of spell that affected my charge." Kyle sighed.

"Pandora, the spell…" HJ was paling as he started twitching nervously.

"What spell?" Paige demanded her eyes quickly bouncing between her two children.

"Are you sure it has nothing to do with the rising source?" Chris asked Kyle Broody.

"If anyone would know that, it would be you." Kyle shrugged.

"What does that mean?" Piper asked the whitelighter. "Christopher what does that mean?"

"Mom, focus. Missing cousins more important that how little brother spends his time." Wyatt snapped at his mother carefully.

"Pandora what did you do?" Leo sighed.

"Why are we assuming that it's Pandora, doesn't Chris cast just as many spells as Dora?" Henry asked.

"Yeah but his usually do what they are meant to do." Phoebe sighed.

"That's a bit of an overstatement." Wyatt sighed.

"It couldn't have worked." HJ repeated.

"What did you two do?" Chris asked.

"It was in a dream…" Dora shook her head.

"You said a spell in a dream?" Melinda asked suddenly surprised.

"She said a spell in my dream." HJ corrected. "And I helped but I thought it would never work."

Leo choked on the water he was sipping at the revelation. Henry and Coop turned to stare at the brother-in-law quicker than even the sisters.

"You all right Leo?" Coop frowned.

"Pandora is a dream enchanter?" Leo blinked surprised and stared at Kyle.

"I don't know anything about that…" Kyle shrugged.

"What is a dream enchanter?" Piper crossed her arms.

"Do you remember when Prue was astro projecting while she was asleep?" Leo asked the room.

"She practically ruined your wedding, how can we forget." Phoebe nodded.

"Well we weren't there," Paige pointed to herself and the rest of the room.

"Dream enchantment works in a similar manner," Leo explained like a professor who had spent many years in a classroom. "Pandora can cast spells that will work within the world outside her dreams. It takes practice to be able to control the power, but dream enchanters can also function like sandmen. She can wander in and out of dreams. It must be a extension of her sight power." Leo commented thinking about the different reasons why one of his family members was chosen for this power.

"That's the power surge I ignored this morning?" Wyatt frowned.

"Why did you ignore it?" Chris asked his older brother.

"Why did you want to get rid of Penelope and Patricia? And where did you send them?" Melinda asked.

"This is your fault?" Patience glared at Pandora.

"I don't remember the spell," Dora cried miserably.

"She was upset, Dora and Henry were both upset last night." Henry Sr. commented trying to make sense of the situation. After so many years with the charmed family, the only non-magical member knew that strange situations and magical mishaps were normal. He was worried about the disappearance of one of his children, but once it was confirmed that the responsible party was another of his children he had relaxed. Henry Mitchell had learned to roll with the punches when it came to his children and his wife.

"With mom basically agreeing to bind Tricia's powers, who wouldn't be upset." Chris sighed. His mother flicked a finger at his bare arm and Chris wrinkled his nose at her.

"But what does that have to do with Penelope?" Coop questioned.

"Try to remember the spell," Leo encouraged Pandora.

"It had something to do with a witch that had forgot her power." HJ commented.

"Penelope has stopped using her magic." Kyle nodded. "Maybe the magic worked differently because of that?"

"She has not!" Patience defended her sister. "Just the other night she walked through a wall."

"She did what now?" Phoebe asked her oldest.

"Yes, I did feel that." Wyatt nodded.

"You felt that but not Dora's dream magical haywire session?' Chris demanded aggravated. "The source could have something to do with this."

"Kyle says the magic was good, no matter how powerful a source can not mask their magic." Leo shook his head.

"Were you in danger?" Kyle asked Patience.

"Well not exactly…" Patience shook her head.

"Was something wrong?" Wyatt questioned.

"Not really…" Patience shook her head looking embarrassed.

"A bad dream?" Chris squinted his green eyes at the girl searching for his answer, as if he could pull it right out of her. Patience nodded not making eye contact. Wyatt studied the exchange carefully noticing the nervous twitching of his brother, apparently he wasn't the only one having nightmares.

"The only reason that Penelope might use her magic was to help her sisters." Kyle nodded.

"She had stopped using her magic." Primrose had finally settled in Wyatt's arms. The youngest of the brood had one of the strongest personalities but she rarely made herself noticed among her large family.

"Are you sure Prim?" Coop asked the little girl.

"Penelope didn't want to be a witch, as much as Tricia didn't want to be a witch." Primrose nodded resolutely. "Is that the reason they were taken away?"

"That and Dora," Patience chucked a pillow at the still rocking Dora.

"Patience," Phoebe snapped her fingers at her oldest.

"So what's the plan of action here?" Henry asked the group.

"I want to check in the underworld, no offense Broody." Chris suggested ready to orb but his mother grab his arm.

"Wyatt?" She suggested.

"Of course," Wyatt winked at his brother as he placed Primrose on the ground.

"Did you see your sister disappear last night?" Phoebe asked her youngest. Primrose nodded.

"It was in the lights, like when Chris and Wyatt come." She smiled a toothless grin.

"You thought Chris and Wyatt had taken her?" Coop nodded.

"I thought she had orbed," Primrose frowned. "Bad magic is usually black."

"Yes, that's true baby." Phoebe sighed.

"We'll go to the underworld and see what we can find out." Wyatt nodded to his family swinging a brotherly arm around Chris before the two orbed out.

"I have to go to work, but someone will call me when we find the girls? I'm going to check truant reports and whatnot, just in case this isn't magical at all." Henry sighed.

"I am going to check with the elders?" Kyle suggested.

"Oh now you're going to do something." Phoebe rolled her eyes, petting Primrose's hair carefully.

"Phoebe," Paige sighed. "I'm going to talk to the Elders too and I'll get you home." Paige kissed her husband before three more adults orbed out of the room.

"I'm going to teach class here, but Primrose why don't you come with me for the day?" Coop suggested holding out his hand to the girl.

One by one the family members wandered out. Patience and HJ headed to the library in attempts to find more information on how to find their respective sisters with magical means. While Phoebe and Piper remained with Pandora, trying to help the young witch remember what she had said in her dream. Melinda was lost in the shuffle and ended up slipping into the endless empty hallway.

Melinda had not spent as much time at Magic School as her brothers had in her life. The marble floor and the endless hallway were vaguely familiar to her, in way that made her resentful yet again.

"Resent is a delightfully horrible feeling to consume you know, it's like a spoonful of cough medicine and not the good kind of cough medicine but the horrid kind that your grandmother would have to plug your nose to take." A young male voice explained from somewhere unseen.

"Excuse me?" Melinda spun around trying to find the source of the voice. No one was visible. The hallway was empty of any movement or boy.

"Practice young Halliwell. You can see me if you try." The voice encouraged.

"Who are you?" Melinda demanded, frustrated she crossed her arms.

"Your brothers were much more disciplined at your age." The voice commented. "I only know though because of their school records, the things that they got in trouble for demonstrate a through understanding and mastery of their magic." The voice again over-explained. Melinda fumed again, yet another thing she couldn't do like her brothers.

"Ah the resentment, a youngest child conundrum. You are not the first youngest magical being to resent their older siblings." The voice laughed slightly.

"All right," Melinda threw up her hands trying to freeze the invisible voice, unsuccessfully.

"That won't work." The voice chuckled. Melinda shrugged.

"Fine stay invisible, it's not like I need to see you anyway." She snapped at the air in front of her.

"Now you're mad at me." The voice sounded displeased. Quite suddenly a boy's head appeared floating in the middle of the air. A Hispanic young man with black curls sticking to his forehead and brilliant black eyes smiling wider than his pearly teeth.

"My names Hector, Hector Ariza." He smiled. "And you of course, are Melinda Halliwell."

"Why are you a floating head?" Melinda asked him.

"Oh," In an unseen movement the boy was suddenly whole, except a part of his arm where a barely visible fabric was draped.

"You just hanging out in the endless hallway?" Melinda snapped.

"I'm not a fan of my magical potions class." He shrugged pointing to the invisible part of his arm. "Hence my stealing one of the professor's invisible cloaks. Promise not to tell your dad?" Hector smiled begging her.

"Won't you get caught without your cloak on?" Melinda wondered.

"Well not if we, you want to prove you can help and I think I can help…" Hector held out his open palm to the girl.

"How do you know that?" Melinda asked.

"Empath." Hector pointed at himself. "I know that your brothers and parents have been shielding you from the magical, but seriously you could be like Chris a little more."

"Do you know my brothers?" Melinda asked curiously.

"I've been a student at Magical School for the last 12 years." Hector nodded. "I've had to file many a times with your brothers, mostly Chris. He's closer to my age and all…" Hector shrugged.

"How old are you?" Melinda asked.

"17." Hector laughed.

"Are you just an empath?" Melinda asked before she could stop herself. Hector laughed as he pushed open a little door that appeared to have been created for trolls.

"Not all of us are Halliwells Melinda, most witches only have one active power." Hector motioned for her to sit on a large beanbag.

"How can you help? And how do you know what's going on?" Melinda demanded now taking a seat.

"Empath." Hector repeated. "You Halliwells drive all of us sixth sense kids crazy when you arrive on the premise. I could feel all your emotions, your brothers' anxieties and fears, secrets and exhaustion. The fact that your cousins were missing was easy to pick up on. And well Pandora's guilt brought me to the conclusion much faster than everyone else." Hector smiled.

"And what can you do?" Melinda asked.

"Some fancy magic, if you want to help?" Hector shrugged.

"What do we do?" Melinda jumped to her feet ready and willing.

While Melinda and her new found ally Hector worked away in one corner of Magic School, Henry and Patience were working together in the library. They sat together bent over a small table, with stacks of books surrounding them.

"Did you save your charge again this morning?" Patience whispered. HJ nodded, not looking up from his reading.

"You're in love with her…" Patience sighed, leaning her cheek against her palm. HJ snapped his head up suddenly staring at his cousin.

"No…no, no I'm not." HJ stuttered.

"Come on, you stink of it." Patience sighed sadly.

"No, you're wrong." HJ shook his head again.

"Maybe not love, infatuation and attraction definitely. Which for any high school boy means love." Patience shrugged.

"I'm not in love with her." HJ shook his head.

"I would hope not…" Patience looked sad for her cousin. Her hand was dancing over a book playing with two single pages. A warm pink glow emitted from her hand and the book started fluttering to life, flipping through pages quickly in a fashion that was reminiscent of the Book of Shadows.

"Patience what are you doing?" HJ asked.

"I don't really know." Patience responded not being able to move her hand. The pink glow, evaporated as the book became still again.

"What does it say?" HJ stared down at the upside down page.

"Pandora's Box Genealogy of Guardian Magic." Patience read.

"Why did your magic open to a page about Pandora's Box?" HJ demanded.

"Because," Patience flipped the book around to be right side up to her cousin, "look."

With a sparkling pink fingernail, Patience directed the hazel eyes of Henry Jr. Mitchell to the name that was magically inscribing itself to the bottom of the list.

"Amelle Hopi." HJ read. "Is a guardian of the box of Pandora?"

"Apparently, that's why my magic brought me here." Patience sighed.

"What does this mean?" HJ started reading the rest of the page.

"You're sister and mine are missing…" Patience pointed out.

"And if anything had happened to them we would know, and we're about 99% sure that they were sent to wherever they were sent by my other sister and myself. Aren't we obligated to help innocents?" HJ asked her.

"If you admit that you're in love with her?" Patience baited.

"Patience, the most magically powerful family in the world is looking for our sisters. The two of us should help this girl," HJ begged.

"She's your charge…" Patience frowned.

"And your magic brought me here, clearly we're suppose to help her together. Maybe it's all connected?" HJ suggested.

"All right, but the next time that Chris decides to lecture me about all the time I spend with Dervin, I expect you not to take his side." Patience flipped her short hair behind her ear and started flipping through a new book.

The hours of the day were dwindling along, as Piper and Phoebe were trying their hundredth idea for trying to retrieve the spell from their niece. Paige had reappeared and was now lulling Dora into sleep.

"Maybe if we can get her asleep again, and someone else asleep her dream self can remember the spell?" Phoebe was explaining.

"Who's going to sleep with her?" Piper asked.

"She can't be threatened." Phoebe explained reading from an ancient pamphlet.

"Well she thinks I'm going to ground her." Paige sighed, softly stroke her fingers along her daughter's arm.

"Because you are," Piper nodded.

"And all of them are afraid of you." Phoebe rolled her eyes at Piper.

"Just because I'm the only one who can put my foot down when they fluttered their eyes and beg…" Piper started to grumble.

"Oh yeah? Phoebe didn't Chris just last week almost get himself killed again, did he have any consequences?" Paige mocked.

"All right, you two. Either he's an adult or not, you can't claim that I'm soft and that I'm overbearing at the same time." Piper grumbled.

"Well that leaves me, do you think I could get her to share it?" Phoebe asked Paige.

"We can try." Paige shrugged.

"All right, take this." Piper handed her middle sister a little cup of potion, the same that had placed Pandora into her slumber just minutes before.

"Be careful, not to let her cast anymore spells." Piper warned before Phoebe drooped into a slumber on the nearby couch.

Wyatt leaned with his arms crossed against a wall, glancing down at his watch.

"Got somewhere to be bro?" Chris mocked.

"Do you even have a lead anymore? Or are you trying to bother me?" Wyatt sighed.

"Annoying you is so much fun." Chris smiled and winked.

"Why don't we check in with Benji." Wyatt suggested.

"Well…" Chris bit his lip and straightened up. "If we go to Benji and he doesn't know…"

"Then he will know and we don't know who else he informs." Wyatt nodded looking beat again.

"Do we know where the rising source is?" Wyatt asked.

"Nemod? No haven't seen him since he tried to kill me last week." Chris shrugged.

"And what have you been up to since then?" Wyatt wondered.

"What have you been up to?" Chris retorted back.

"Can you sense them?" Wyatt asked suddenly.

"Pen and Tricia?" Chris' shoulders tensed. Wyatt nodded curtly, his eyes slightly flashing a different gray color. Wyatt suddenly grabbed Chris and held him against the wall and pushed one hand off, projecting a hologram of an empty wall.

"Wy?" Chris started but Wyatt's idle hand slammed into Chris jaw, keeping his mouth muted. Two figures hidden underneath cloaks were strolling into the room.

"The Halliwells are jumper than ever these days, with those nightmares haunting their sleep. And now this crazed Nemod wants us to attack them tonight." One demon suggested.

"During their dreams though, it is easier because they can't hurt us or vanquish us in their dream state." The other responded.

"We have the ceremony to get ready for, we can't let ourselves get vanquished." The first responded.

"The ceremony needs a few more items. We must collect the Soloarist Quintadist." The demon shoved the other demon.

"We should follow them," Chris whispered.

"Chris," Wyatt pushed his brother backed.

"Wyatt, we could stop the source from rising before he does." Chris whispered desperately. Wyatt thought for only a second before nodding, still keeping Chris behind him he held out his hologram and moved forward to follow the demons.

"Piper this isn't working…" Paige sighed starring at the slumbering Pandora and Phoebe. Piper was pacing around her husband's desk, occasionally stopping to flip through pages of a book.

"Just when you think you've seen everything, when you think that my boys have figured out how to make every magical mishap possible." Piper was grumbling.

"Dream enchanting wasn't exactly in what to expect from your teenager," Paige rubbed her forehead frantically again. Melinda stormed back into her father's office with Hector Ariza on her heels.

"Have you figured it out?" Melinda asked her mother pointedly. Piper crossed his arms expectantly.

"No sweetheart we haven't," Piper sighed.

"Were you trying to tap into her seer power?" Hector asked starring down at the sleeping Halliwells.

"Hector, why aren't you in class?" Paige chastised the student she was more than familiar with.

"Well Mrs. Matthews Mitchells, I hate potions and lovely Melinda here needed my particular expertise." Hector winked at Melinda.

"What expertise is that exactly?" Piper glared at the young man.

"He's an empath, particularly versed in dream emotions." Paige nodded.

"You need the third witch with premonition power, which at this time is only Melinda. But first," Hector produced a small bag from his coat. Melinda had rushed over and produced a piece of sidewalk chalk from behind a book in one of the many cases. The youngest of Piper's children was carefully drawing a pentagram on the marble flooring of her father's office.

"What are you doing?" Piper stamped her foot a bit at the girl.

"Drawing from all our powers." Melinda rolled her eyes as if amazed her mother didn't yet understand. For a charmed one, Melinda occasionally thought he mother out of practice and slow. Hector was dropped items on each point of the star, carefully.

"Is that Tricia's hairbrush?" Paige demanded noticing the light brown curls twisted in the prongs of a wooden hairbrush.

"It's an essence type of magic Mrs. Matthews Mitchell, Miss Vanguard occasionally teaches it." Hector explained.

"Essence magic is powerful and dangerous." Paige stated alarmed. She stopped forward to remove the brush but Melinda threw out her hand.

"Do you want to find Dora and Pen or not Aunt Paige?" Melinda demanded in a tempered voice that echoed of Piper.

"Melinda Prudence, don't use that tone with your aunt." Piper snapped her finger at the girl but was trying to hide a smile of pride. "And are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"You're going to have to put me to sleep too, and I am going to have to tap into the power. Like I did that night that Nemod did this to us, I know how to tap into the power." Melinda nodded fiercely.

"While she sleeps, I'll wait for the sense of achievement and spill this over them an the words of the spell should make themselves known." Hector smiled brightly. "Headmaster Wyatt calls it the fire to the lime juice code. Though I'm never entirely sure what that means."

"You've never used lemon juice to write a note to someone?" Melinda asked appalled.

"No, why would I do that when I can empathically share my feelings." Hector shrugged.

"Yeah, right." Melinda sighed sarcastically. "Why didn't I think of that…? Aunt Paige if you could move Dora and Aunt Phoebe to the center of the design."

Melinda directed as Paige grudgingly moved the two sleeping bodies.

"Maybe we should check with some of the other teachers here if this is a good idea," Piper sighed watching as her daughter settled herself onto the ground in-between her cousin and aunt.

"If anything goes wrong, all those teachers will be able to clean up the mess." Hector shrugged.

"You're not helping." Melinda snapped at her new friend. "Mom, its just something to try. I think it'll work. Besides, you let Chris and Wyatt go to the underworld. They are ten times more likely to get themselves killed down there than I am while sleeping in the middle of Dad's office."

"She's got a point Piper," Paige nodded.

"Oh, shut up Paige." Piper grumbled. "Fine, but you, young man stay right here and if you sense any kind of distress from any of them we wake them up."

Piper pointed a maternal finger that beckoned Hector towards her.

"This power tap won't affect Wyatt and Chris' powers in the underworld?" Paige asked before Melinda fell asleep.

"We didn't use their powers, just in case. We only have the other seven powers," Melinda yawned as she instantly fell asleep.

Patience had her feet up on the chair in front of her, as she played with her own bracelets and held her cell phone to her ear and mouth with her shoulder.

"My mom's busy right now," Patience was explained into the phone yet again. HJ was holding a crystal in his hand swinging it over several maps of different places in the world.

"HJ and I are looking for information on the guardian of Pandora's box." Patience sighed.

"No, no. We didn't find the box. No, we're not doing something we're not suppose to… Billie, listen to me." Patience rolled her eyes at her cousins.

"Why does everyone think we're like toddlers with a cookie jar?" Patience whispered to HJ as she covered the mouthpiece of her phone.

"Wyatt and Chris." HJ suggested still concentrating on the map.

"HJ has a new charge, and her name just appeared on the list of guardians of the box of Pandora. So we're assuming that the box is real?" Patience asked.

"Patience Halliwell, inspiring confidence in every adult she talks to…" HJ mocked as her heard the lecturing rant from Billie on the other side of the phone.

"Well, no I haven't looked at the book. We're in the middle of a family crisis right now and we're not at the manor." Patience explained.

"She's going to astro project over here." HJ sighed and before he knew it, Billie Jenkins was standing in front of the two teenagers.

"What kind of family crisis?" Billie demanded starring at the oldest cupitch.

"Don't you have your own family to crisis over?" Patience smiled at her old babysitter.

"Haven't you outgrown your attitude problem?" Billie frowned back.

"Apparently not," Patience shrugged.

"Hey Billie," HJ gave her a stiff wave but kept waving around the crystal.

"Why haven't you learned to scry with the computer yet? It's so much faster," Billie sighed.

"Mum believes in the old fashioned basics." HJ shrugged.

"What family crisis?" Billie asked glancing around looking for more familiar faces.

"Penelope and Patricia are missing." Patience explained.

"What? Why didn't Phoebe call me?" Billie turned on her heel to head towards Leo's office, where she assumed that the sisters were converging.

"Wait," Patience held her back. Billie had matured into a wife, mother and powerful witch since her years with the charmed ones. She now lived in South America, working to converge the magic of ancient tribes and new witches while occasionally teaching at magic school. She had married a mortal man from Costa Rica and had a yet-to-be magical toddler at home. Her hair was up in a messy bun and she was sporting an outfit that Patience wanted to mock for coming straight out of Indiana Jones.

"We're almost positive that wherever they have gone, Pandora is the one who sent them there." Patience popped her gum loudly. A librarian came hustling towards the children and was shocked to find Billie.

"Miss Jenkins, I thought we would be seeing you until the Spring semester." A tiny dwarf bustled.

"Yeah, I didn't think so either. But I was summoned by these here Halliwells." Billie smiled politely.

"Should I call the headmaster?" The librarian glared at Patience and HJ.

"No, I'm sure Leo is busy. Don't bother him. I'll talk to him later, excuse Patience. She tends to forget rules apply to her." Billie hit the teenager's legs to make Patience sit up in her chair properly.

"Yes, well… A library is a quiet place." The librarian gave Patience a deathly glare.

"Yes ma'am." Patience responded swallowing her own gum.

"I think you're brattier when Billie is around." HJ whispered to her.

"What can I say," Patience shrugged. "So Billie, these guardians they are really guarding Pandora's box… like the real Pandora, the one with all the plagues?"

"The plagues were from the bible Patience, Pandora's box contains all the evils of the world. The box always has a guardian. The guardians are a destined line of protectors that aren't genetically linear like witches. A guardian is a chosen girl, destined to protect the box, born every generation." Billie explained.

"Like the slayer?" Patience tilted her head.

"Like Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" Billie's eyes popped open wider at Patience.

"Dervin likes 90s television shows and movies." HJ provided.

"The boyfriend your father and mother disapprove of?" Billie nodded.

"He's grown on them…" Patience fought.

"Like grass on a china pet." Billie laughed.

"Back to the guardians, how would one be enlightened to their chosen path as protector?" HJ asked.

"The old guardian would have to have died, and the box would have to appear to the new guardian. But I saw Hope just last week, we were at a lecture on Greek Mythology in Paris, France." Billie frowned.

"But Amelle is on this list now…" HJ dropped the crystal and showed the list to the older witch.

"And Amelle is?" Billie asked staring at the magically updating list.

"My first charge," HJ explained.

"But guardians aren't witches, they don't get white lighters." Billie snapped her attention back up to HJ.

"The elders said she was my charge, and I can hear her call." HJ explained.

"But that seems strange." Billie tapped at the list and maps in front of her carefully. "Look I have to get back to the research I was doing and I have to pick Christy from daycare. Isn't there an Oracle at this school?"

"Yes," Patience and Henry both nodded.

"I would suggest trying to see if she can answer why exactly a white lighter has a charge that should be a charge, and why there's a guardian without a box to guard." Billie winked at the two young people before disappearing again.

"I'm not going to see Verity Vanguard." Patience crossed her arms and looked aggravated.

"What did she do to you?" HJ asked standing up.

"She gives me the creeps." Patience shrugged.

"And you want to go see Dervin? You know you're mom and mine, and Aunt Piper would freak if you left Magic School?" HJ warned.

"We've declared that our sisters were taken by your sister, I highly doubt that Pandora would dare attack me." Patience winked pressing her had not her chest and disappearing with a bright red heart.

"Today is just a bad day." HJ whispered to himself trudging along to find the famous Oracle Witch.

Time often escaped measure in the underworld and Wyatt and Chris were caught in ceremonial chamber hours after they started trailing their demons.

"They need that to create a new source," Chris was arguing with his brother.

"You have no idea if that's true." Wyatt was holding his brother back, in a shadowed corner trying desperately not to be noticed.

"Look all we have to do is take it," Chris struggled against Wyatt's arm.

"Yeah, that's the start of every demon fight we've ever gotten into. Why don't we just wait and see what these demons are going to do…" Wyatt started but the demons that the brothers had followed into the chamber were already slowly pacing out.

"They're leaving, we can totally just grab it and orb out." Chris ducked underneath Wyatt's arm and jogged over to the small un-ornate table where a spinning orb encased in a golden specter sat. Wyatt sprinted after Chris, but the baseball player was faster than the out of practice football player. Chris grabbed the specter without thought or precaution and the once calm room exploded with screaming and bursts of black clouds.

"Damn it Chris!" Wyatt pushed out his arms sending a burst of power through the room as Chris hit the ground.

"Not like you didn't want a good fight where you didn't have to feel guilty about beating someone up." Chris laughed as he swung the specter at the demons near him.

"Oh I am still going to beat you up when I get my hands on you, you impulsive little idiot." Wyatt shouted as he swung a fist at the jaw of a brute demon.

"In the wrong neck of the woods are we boys?" Nemod's voice mocked from everywhere, as his laughter shook the rock walls with such force the room might collapse. Chris sent a shock of electricity at the nearest demon before he slid gracefully into his brother's ankles.

"Are you on my side or the demons?" Wyatt kicked aggravated at his brother.

"Force field me for a second?" Chris smiled.

"Sometimes I hate you." Wyatt took a deep breath and shook with energy for a second before a burst of light surrounded the two boys. Chris worked quickly securing the specter into the belt on his black pants. Powers and weapons alike bounced from the force field, but every hit was taking a toll on Wyatt. Chris jumped to his feet and patted his brother on the back.

"Ready," He smiled looking like he was enjoying himself. Wyatt pressed his lips together and just glared as the light wall collapsed. Chris waved up his hands on either side sending demons away and parting his path like the red sea. Wyatt was able to take a few seconds to recover before turning around to face another demon, seconds to late to duck a fist. Wyatt went flying down into the dirt, his face pale and his eyes closed.

"Wy?" Chris turned unable to see his taller brother. "Wyatt?"

"No big brother to protect you," A demon sneered at Chris.

"Wyatt?" Chris shouted angrily, unable to see where Wyatt had fallen. Chris orbed away from his attackers to his brother, Wyatt still lying on the ground not moving much.

"Come on," Chris shook at Wyatt a bit trying to wake him. A club from behind swung at Chris and sent the younger brother flying towards a table that broke into pieces as the young man slammed into it.

"Stay away from him!" Chris screamed struggling to pick himself up. Wyatt was started to stir again and Chris frantically was waving demons away from Wyatt, not bothering to pay attention to the shadows closing in on him.

_A young Wyatt and Chris were playing along with toy swords in the living room of the manor. Melinda was sitting watching them through bars of a playpen, reduced to being a toddler enviously watching her brothers do yet another thing without her. _

_ "Want," Melinda reached out hoping to be able to play with a sword to, to be included in the game. Piper entered the room and smiled at the Melinda, reaching down and picking her up. Melinda fit comfortably on her mother's hip, small and controlled. As she stared over to her brothers again, the boys were not children anymore. Wyatt was his usual self, tall and muscular with signs of facial hair on his chin. Chris had shorter hair than he usually did and his arms were crossed in a serious manner. _

_ "We have to go," Wyatt smiled at his sister. _

_ "But you'll stay here with mom." Chris nodded. _

_ "I want to go," Melinda tried to struggle free from her mother's firm grasp with no success. _

_ "Don't be silly baby, you can't go with your brothers. It's dangerous." Piper patted the girl on the back. _

_ "But I should go too." Melinda cried. _

_ "Don't be silly," Wyatt mimicked his mother. Before the scene grew dark. Melinda stood alone, no longer in the arms of her mother. The city of San Francisco rose before her in ruins, complete ruins with fires and horrific screams coming from afar. The manor was just ahead, the only part of the landscape that still looked familiar and real. Melinda wandered towards the house and stepped inside. The manor was not the same though a tiny little robot came flying towards her before everything paused again, unnaturally. _

_ "Melinda?" Dora's voice rang in the emptiness. _

_ "Pandora?" Melinda turned to find herself in the attic of a manor she knew. Phoebe was sitting on the couch, slightly younger and much more seductively dressed than she ever was these days. _

_ "Do you dream yourself younger aunt Phoebe?" Melinda stared at her aunt. _

_ "You probably will one day too…" Phoebe sighed. _

_ "Sooner than you think," Melinda grumbled. "Did you remember the spell?"_

_ "She still can't seem to." Phoebe sighed from the couch. _

_ "It's different." Pandora exasperatedly waved at Phoebe. Melinda nodded thinking for a second. _

_ "What if you think we're Henry and Patricia?" Melinda suggested. _

_ "Can she do that?" Phoebe asked. _

_ "Well you're dreaming, and we're dreaming. So we should be able to control the dream, especially when you're aware you're dreaming?" Melinda nervously twirled her hair. Pandora nodded trying to concentrate on pretending her cousin and aunt were indeed her brother and sister. The thoughts worked because after a moment Pandora was re-imaging her dream from the night before. _

Hector nodded thoughtfully stepping forward without warning making Piper jumped.

"Did she get it?" Piper asked. Hector blew dusty sand over the sleeping bodies and words started to form.

"Ready to write it down?" Hector asked her as he blew more dust. Piper snapped her wrist over her husband's desk grabbing a pen and started jotting down the words that were appearing over the sleeping family members. Years of spell writing, accounting and running her own businesses made Piper write neatly and quickly without effort. As Hector was coating the words for the third time the eldest Charmed witch already had everything she needed. She copied the spell over on another piece of paper before grabbing a nearby match and lighting one copy on fire.

"What are you doing?' Hector asked.

"Let us see what magic this spell has wrought," Piper asked the fire and catching the ashes into a cup of tea on the desk, swirling particles formed numbers.

"Of course," Piper sighed.

"Oh," Hector swallowed.

"What? What does oh mean?" Piper spun around again to face him.

"Melinda didn't tell me they were being tormented by nigt-mares." Hector stumbled back trying to sit himself down.

"Nightmares?" Piper looked surprised.

"Nigt-mares, the evil spirits that torment good witches with dark visions of dark fears, evil presences and resentments." Hector explained starring at the struggling Melinda on the ground.

"Melinda," Piper dropped down to her knees, trying to shake her daughter awake.

"She won't wake, until it's run its course." Hector shook his head looking frightened. Pandora started struggling as well as Phoebe snapped awake.

HJ knocked on the door of a little office, off one of the many corridors of the endless hallway. The door slowly creaked open, revealing the scents of many lit incessant sticks.

"Miss Vanguard?" HJ whispered.

"Mr. Mitchell," Verity was sitting in a white robe, on top of a large golden table. "Young white lighter, so much like the heroes that came to my mother."

"So you know why I'm here?" HJ whispered.

"You have to ask, otherwise my ancient powers wont' be invoked. Prophecies from Oracles work differently than visions from seers." Verity explained calmly.

"Right," HJ let out a long sigh. "Why has Amelle Hopi become a guardian before her time and why must I protect her?"

Verity Vanguard sat so still, HJ almost thought she was a statue in the room. Then her eyes turned a glowing gold and her mouth popped open.

" A fate revealed before its time by darkness trying to turn a tide, distract the ones and let them fall, for one by one he will collect them all." A smoke that fumed from Verity's mouth filled the room, making it even harder for the young white lighter to to breathe. But the prophecy was over almost as quickly as it had started.

"What does that mean?" HJ demanded.

"That I can't help you with young hero, didn't you read the Odyssey?" She giggled.

Wyatt and Chris were once again back to back dancing around each other strategically as they fought the demons still quickly closing in on them.

"Give them back the specter." Wyatt grabbed the golden orb from his brother's belt loop. Chris reacted instantly and clutched his hand around the object.

"No. Not after all this trouble." Chris whined slightly.

"Give it back," Wyatt commanded.

"Not if I don't want to," Chris struggled against Wyatt. Neither brother noticed ho the demons stood at a distance, watching the exchange curiously waiting.

"Christopher." Wyatt grumbled.

"Wyatt," Chris countered shoving at Wyatt slightly. Wyatt snapped his wrist, channeling his powers to get the specter away from his brother. Chris expecting the action shoved his whole right side into Wyatt. The brothers smashed into each other and onto the ground, with the golden specter in-between their fighting bodies. The glass of the orb shattered from the weight and the boys passed out without a fight onto the dirt floor.

"Perfect," Nemod clapped.

_Melinda was hiding in the shadows of the attic watching a scene she had only seen once before. Her brothers were fighting each other, actually fighting each other with magic and with hatred. Wyatt had sent Chris flying into a pile of objects, harshly reproaching him for his attempts to save the world. Chris was hurt and not as strong as he usually was in front of Melinda. A girl, an unknown girl that Melinda had never seen was crying and struggling to get Wyatt to stop attacking Chris. _

_ A ripple went through the dream and Melinda felt the sharp pain of danger. Wyatt and Chris were both on the ground. Her Wyatt and Chris were in trouble. _

"Wyatt, Chris…" Melinda choked as she stood up and all her will and power made the objects of her cousins tremble as her two knocked out brothers appeared by her side on the ground of her father's office.


	9. Pull Me Out of the Dark

**Pull Me Out of the Dark **

_Closer to Love, Matt Kearny_

**October 14, 1992 **

A bell was shrieking loudly and someone pushed against the desk beneath Patricia's arms. Patricia yawned and stretched out her arms above her head blinking a few times before realizing that she wasn't in bed and the bell wasn't her alarm clock.

Teenagers were swarming around her, bustling in and out of the classroom. Patricia's heart rate jumped as she glanced around desperately trying to place herself, but none of the faces looked familiar and she could sense the difference. She jumped out of her seat and ran out into the hallway, packed with bright colors and faded demin jean jackets. Patricia ignored the yelping from the people she pushed aside, as she made her way to the nearest restroom.

After a few collisions and some wrong turns, she finally reached a sink where she ran cold water. She danced her fingers through the water and slowly splashed it onto her warm cheeks.

"This is just a dream," Patricia was whispering to herself.

"Fail a test kid?" A girl applying lipstick at the end of the mirror asked. Patricia caught sight of the girl and was captivated. The young woman was wearing a glittering gold hat, with her dark hair pulled through the back. She had a black tank top on with pants that Tricia couldn't stop starring at.

"Problem with my outfit honey?" The girl snapped.

"Are you wearing a parachute?" Tricia squeaked.

"No, what are you new? These are Hammer Pants." The girl glared at Tricia. Tricia looked bewildered.

"Like M.C. Hammer?" The girl tried again. Patricia shook her head.

"Are you living under a rock, he's on every hour on MTV." The girl rolled her eyes and went back to applying her make up. Patricia looked around at the bathroom now, noticing for the first time that it was not George Washington High School's normal bathroom. She studied herself in the mirror again and for the first time noticed she was wearing big pink heart earrings and what appeared to be a draping yellow tank top under a pair of overalls.

"I don't own overalls." Patricia snapped her own strap.

"Apparently you do." The make up girl sighed as she walked out of the bathroom. Patricia splashed water on her face once more, trying and willing herself to wake out of this strange dream. A troop of girls entered, most wearing doc martin type shoes that Tricia noticed as she was bent over the sink.

"God Mr. Henson needs to just chill. I don't understand why he's such a stickler for rules. History isn't that important. Who even cares what President Bush has to say anyway? Didn't we just elect a new president? That sexy one that played the Sax on MTV." One of the girls was complaining. Patricia looked up instantly noticing the waist high jeans, the oversized plaid shirts and one military green jacket. The group of girls didn't take notice of Patricia right away instead pulling out lighters and cigarettes.

"Did you hear the new Nirvana song?" One of the girls was asking.

"Excuse me?" Patricia stuttered. All the girls turned to stare at her expectantly.

"Yeah?" One of the girls demanded.

"Did you say that we just elected a new president?" Patricia was trying to grasp at treads of the conversation that she understood.

"Yeah, what of it?" A girl puffed out a stream of smoke.

"Bobby Jensen isn't the student body president anymore?" Patricia asked.

"Who the hell is Bobby Jensen? Student Body President is prefect little Kimberly Stanton." One of the girls sneered.

"And besides we were talking about the white house president." Another girl giggled.

"Oh, and who was elected?" Patricia asked slowly.

"What are you living under a rock?" Another girl demanded, the one in the green military jacket. Patricia stared at her a moment, a spark of familiarity striking her like a moment of déjà vu.

"I'm just…" Patricia was trying to form the sentence but couldn't take her eyes off the girl in the jacket. She had dark hair, choppy in places like it had been self-cut. She had braces and wore heavy eye makeup, but her eyes were vaguely familiar.

"Our new president is Bill Clinton, at least whenever he gets to take over for the old guy." Another girl was explaining.

"Not until January," Patricia responded without thinking.

"We're stuck with an uncool president until '93?" Another girl piped up. The girl in the green jacket had shifted uncomfortable at Patricia's starring.

"I'm sorry, 1993?" Tricia snapped her eyes off the familiar face.

"It's 1992 so yeah, next would be 1993. What did you hit your head on that sink?" One of the girls asked. Tricia started to pinch her arm, frantically.

"Wake up," She begged herself. The girls stared at Tricia critically.

"You think she's tweaking on something?" One asked.

"She looks to goody good for drugs…" Another commented.

"She's definitely loosing it. Maybe she got something slipped to her?" Yet another suggested. Noticing she wasn't waking up Tricia ran to the nearest stall and started puking. After emptying out the contents of her stomach, the teenager stood back up and leaned against the stall door. The bathroom was silent and the smell of smoke had evaporated signaling that Tricia was alone.

"What is going on?" Tricia whispered. Instantly she was engulfed in a bright red light and stumbled back as the bathroom stall door disappeared.

Penelope was sitting on an upside bucket when Tricia appeared in the tightly compacted space of the janitor closet.

"I was hoping I wasn't alone." Penelope sighed.

"Pen!" Tricia threw her arms around her younger cousin. "Where are we?"

"A janitor's closest at Baker High School. October 14, 1992." Penelope sighed holding up a school paper.

"Baker High School. 1992?" Tricia clutched her stomach again. "We aren't dreaming?"

"No, though I can't figure out how we've time traveled. Luckily, we still have our powers. Which doesn't make any sense since we don't even sort of exist yet and everything that I've read about time travel clearly states that our powers can't exist without us existing…" Penelope mumbled to herself.

"And how did I get here? And why was I at a different school? Why are we in school at all and what are you wearing?" Tricia started rambling questions.

Penelope was wearing a pair of stretch bike shorts black and white polka dots with an oversized striped shirt and a floppy hat. She was starring intently at a point on the ground and still mumbling to herself.

"Apparently what every other freshmen in 1992 was wearing, besides have seen yourself in the mirror?" Penelope snapped impatiently. "Have you tired to use your powers?"

"Powers?" Tricia licked her lips nervously. Penelope wearily shut her eyes and tilted her head up.

"I can't transport us both. I could barely bring you to me. It's a hard power to learn to transport people. Patience can only bring herself to people, it's like healing for white lighters." Penelope explained.

"I haven't been able to orb since I was 13," Tricia choked.

"I suspect you should be able to until you've fully grown into adult powers. From my readings and study of Wyatt and Chris, in particular, I have a theory that as teenagers our powers are going through a type of growing pain." Penelope stood and placed a comforting arm on her cousin's shoulder.

"But," Tricia was shaking her head.

"Look we can't drive and magic brought us here, so there must be a reason we were brought. We might as well be in the safest place we know to exist." Penelope explained.

"Which is where?" Tricia demanded becoming defensive.

"You know you're a Halliwell witch right?" Penelope sighed.

"Don't you start with me too Penelope Halliwell, you don't use your powers as much as I don't." Tricia pointed her finger at the younger girl.

"No, but I know my own family's history." Penelope rolled her eyes. "The safest place for us to go would be the Manor."

"The Manor," Tricia nodded. The doorknob of the closet started to turn and Patricia jumped causing a swarm of white lights to absorb the two cousins instantly.

The girls appeared in the bushes outside the manor, stumbling into the branches and struggling against each other.

"The bush, really Tricia?" Penelope complained.

"I didn't have anything to do with it." Tricia cried.

"Your magic's been controlling you…" Penelope whispered suddenly understanding the feelings of her cousin.

"Stop that," Tricia held up her hands pushing Penelope away from her.

"That's why you've been so scared of everything that's been happening to you…" Penelope nodded to herself.

"And what's your excuse Penelope? Why have you stopped using your magic?" Tricia snapped angrily.

"Great Grandma Penny is home." Penelope blinked her eyes rapidly reaching out and pulling Patricia back.

"Well she can help us," Patricia struggled against Penelope's firm grasp.

"No," Penelope hissed. "Wait, we can't just storm in there."

"Why not?" Patricia glared at her cousin impatient to just return to her own time.

"Time travel is extremely dangerous and complicated. I've been studying Chris a lot lately." Penelope was whispering.

"Studying Chris?" Tricia asked surprised.

"He's in almost all the history books about our family, he's other self. Chris completely changed the world but in the process he almost ruined everything. He was almost not born and it's a terrible thing to mess with the past. If we had been summoned from the past, we would have appeared to whomever summoned us." Penelope was explaining rapidly.

"But we appeared at two different high schools." Tricia frowned.

"Exactly which means we were sent here by someone else, maybe someone in the future, maybe by the Elders, or maybe even by a demon." Penelope shuddered at her own suggestion.

"What does that mean?" Tricia stamped her foot impatiently.

"That means we can't risk changing anything about the past. We can't let grandma Penny know that we're from the future." Penelope shook her head.

"So what are we suppose to say, Hi Penny Halliwell? We know you're a witch, we need you to protect us?" Tricia demanded sarcastically.

"Sort of," Penelope nodded. "Follow my lead."

With that Penelope pulled Patricia out of the bush and right onto the porch of the Manor. Penny Halliwell was walking out of the front door, looking exasperated and almost ran straight into her great granddaughters.

"Oh, what in heavens name?" Penny dropped her keys and in a dazed reached around and pulled the door closed.

"Shouldn't you girls be in school? Are you here looking for Phoebe? I knew that girl was skipping class again, I just knew it." Penny huffed a bit.

"Actually," Penelope piped up. "We're here for your help."

"My help? My help how? Are you selling cookies? I don't have time for any cookies." Penny shook her head. Penny Halliwell was shaking her head, causing her earrings to clank against her bulky necklaces.

"No ma'am. We actually are seeking a different kind of help. Something magical." Penelope whispered the last part. Penny looked at the girls surprised again and studied them critically like she was trying to place their familiarity in her mind.

"Do I know you?" Penny asked.

"No, but we know you." Patricia smiled.

"Look, I am late to meeting at Baker High School. My wayward granddaughter can't manage to stay out of trouble." Penny sighed collecting her keys from the ground.

"We think we might have someone following us," Penelope urged.

"Well," Penny stared at the girls again. Something in their eyes caused Penny to believe them. "The manor is protected, I suppose you could stay here until I get back. But my granddaughter doesn't know anything about magic, so when I get back with her we must not speak about it in front of her." Penny warned.

"We understand." Pen and Tricia nodded.

"All right," Penny unlocked the door again and opened it for the girls. She watched carefully as Penelope and Patricia crossed the threshold. Penelope recognized that the manor was being magically sealed against anyone entering without invitation. More importantly, if the girls had been demons or warlocks the manor would have repelled them instantly.

"Do you trust us now?" Penelope turned to ask the older woman.

"Smart little witch then, I wonder what sort of trouble you have gotten yourself into." Penelope smiled. "I'm Penny Halliwell."

"Yes, we know." Tricia nodded. "I'm P…"

Penelope pinched the back of her cousin's arm and shook her head.

"This is Helen and I'm Callista." Penelope immediately used their middle names. "Charming," Penny smiled.

"No kidding," Penelope grumbled under her breath.

"All right, don't open the door for strangers and help yourselves to any snacks. I should be back soon," Penny commanded before magically shutting the door.

As soon as the door was closed, Patricia started examining the manor.

"It sounds like aunt Phoebe was a delinquent." Patricia commented.

"Yeah, it does." Penelope frowned noticing all the truancy notices sitting on the front table.

"Why did you introduce us by our middle names?" Tricia asked running her hands over the picture of her aunts that didn't include her mother.

"Because I could sense she thought she recognized us. From what I've read about Grams she was an incredibly talented witch, insightful and suspicious. She might have realized our relationship by our very names. She is my namesake after all and well you're named after her daughter and we're both P's. Great Grandma Penny apparently disapproved of Grandma Patty's habit of using the same letter for all her daughters." Penelope explained.

"You really have been doing a lot of research." Patricia stated impressed.

"Probably why I'm failing all my other classes." Penelope mumbled moving towards the staircase. "We should look at the Book before she gets back."

"Right, the book." Tricia grudgingly followed Penelope up the stairs. The door to the attic was closed, something that was unusual to the girls because for all the overprotective nature of Piper Halliwell, she never denied them access to their magical heritage.

"Do you think the door is locked?' Patricia wondered. Penelope shrugged and tried her hand at the door. It jiggled oddly before the door creaked open. The attic was dark and unwelcoming, not to mention much more crowded than it was in the future.

"Its creepy in here," Patricia whispered following closely behind Penelope. The book was not out in the open, near the window, the place that it had always been for the two cousins.

"Book?" Penelope sang to the room.

"You think its just going to come to you?" Patricia laughed.

"You're not trying anything, unless you just want to stay in the past?" Penelope snapped. The girls stumbled around the dusty dark attic slowly, as Patricia tripped over a large trunk.

"Didn't your mom always say she first found the book in a trunk?" Patricia asked as she bent down and popped the large chest open. Inside were all the familiar witch items that the cousins had grown up around.

"The book looks smaller, so much smaller." Penelope sighed worried as she picked it up lovingly. The younger girl settled the book on the ground and took a deep breath before holding out her hands over the ancient pages.

"What are you doing?" Patricia scoffed settling herself onto the nearest stool.

"Asking grandma Patty to help us find something that can help. I haven't studied the book much," Penelope closed her eyes and begged the only spirit she could to help. In the future, Penelope often asked Prue for help, feeling a special connection to the aunt that had been there to help them through their time in the underworld. But in the present past that they were in, Penelope knew that Prue was very much alive and very much unaware she was even a witch.

"Why don't we go to magic school?" Patricia asked. "They can figure out how to send us back."

"We can't." Penelope shook her head.

"Why not?" Patricia demanded.

"Gideon is the headmaster currently. Gideon tried to kill Wyatt, and he did kill a version of Chris." Penelope shivered at the idea of the leaders of the cousins being dead.

"What are we suppose to do?" Tricia cried starting to panic again.

"We're witches too. We are going to help ourselves." Penelope sighed. "Come on, please?" She asked no one in particular. The pages of the book started to flip, silently and purposefully. It opened to a page finally, near the beginning. A simple page with no picture but just fancy calligraphy explaining a magical theory.

"Time Travel," Patricia read. "A complicated and dangerous magical feat, usually not achieved without great power behind it. Time Travel can be achieved through a variety of methods, spells and potions as well as being sent by the Elders in time of great need. The purpose of time travel, especially when the travelers are unaware of their traveling, is to teach a lesson. Due to the unpredictable and volatile nature of time, it is hard and often impossible to reverse time travel until the magic runs its course."

"That's all we get?" Penelope sighed pressing her fingers against her closed eyelids.

"Do you think we were sent here by the Elders?" Tricia asked.

"No," Penelope shook her head. "They wouldn't dare remove us from our homes, not with the rising source and how much everyone is on edge."

"We were never going to help anyway. We don't use magic like the rest of them." Tricia whispered.

"Time of great need." Penelope repeated the line of the explanation.

"Do you think someone needs us in this time?" Tricia wondered.

"There isn't any literature about this time period in the Charmed Ones lives, they weren't Charmed." Penelope shrugged.

"Not witches, not important." Tricia stared off at the windows of the attic, thinking to herself.

"Not to the magical history books." Penelope retorted ignoring the brewing resentment coming from her cousin. A car door was slammed from somewhere outside and shouting could be heard.

"We have to get back downstairs!" Penelope threw the book back into the chest. Patricia snapped the lid shut and the girls went running out of the attic as if a ghost had spooked them.

**October 13, 2023 **

Piper was pacing back and forth between two of the couches in her husband's office, heckling over her two sleeping sons.

"Leo why aren't the boys waking up?" Piper demanded for the hundredth time. Leo was standing at his desk, his left arm protectively wrapped around Melinda's shoulders. Melinda was still shaking but she knew her brothers were alive and that made her calm down. Dora sat in her uncle's chair, trying to make herself invisible worrying that she might be blamed for this magical accident too.

"Paige! Damn it!" Piper shouted at the ceiling again.

"They self heal, Piper." Leo sighed.

"They would be awake if they self healed Leo." Piper retorted back.

"They don't look like they are hurt." Phoebe was stroking Chris hair back, as his head was sitting in her lap.

"I think they are sleeping." Hector finally spoke again.

"Sleeping? I would be able to wake them if they were sleeping!" Piper growled. Paige appeared in the office again.

"Do we know where the girls are?" Paige asked panting, as if she had been running.

"Yeah, they are the past because that's just what this family likes to do. Time travel." Piper waved her arms up sarcastically.

"Piper," Leo sighed at his wife.

"Mom, they are ok. I can feel it." Melinda whispered.

"I want them awake, so that I can yell at them! Their job was to go down to the underworld and watch and listen. I did not tell them to go demon hunting!" Piper was standing over Wyatt. She stretched out her arm and shook his shoulders.

"You hear my young man! How many times have I told you to listen to your mother?" She chastised the sleeping boy.

"Time traveled? Pandora was able to make them time travel?" Paige stared over at her daughter. Pandora sank further down into Leo's chair, trying to avoid her mother's critical stare.

"Well Pandora initially recreated a power of three, be it that she constructed a sister but she did have Henry's subconscious which worked like his conscious." Leo explained.

"But how can a power of three send back two equally powerful witches?" Paige asked her brother-in-law. She crossed her arms, expectantly thinking that Leo wouldn't have an answer.

"And you, Christopher Perry if you keep up with this absurd demon vigilante trip you are going to get not only yourself killed but your brother as well. I swear when you wake up, I'm going to bind your powers until your thirty!" Piper was ranting at the sleeping Chris in Phoebe's lap.

"Yeah, you're really going to get them to wake up Piper." Phoebe sighed.

"They aren't that powerful," Leo started ignoring his wife. "Patricia and Penelope are the least powerful of the bunch by choice. They refuse to practice, so they have become the weakest links. I don't think the spell that Dora cast was intended to take them back in time but sometimes magic works in the way it wants."

"So they are just randomly in the past?" Paige tried to understand.

"Actually they are in 1992." Phoebe turned her head to smile at Paige.

"1992, why the hell are they in 1992? We weren't even witches then." Paige frowned.

"Nothing happened in 1992, that I even remember." Phoebe nodded.

"Aside from you being almost arrested for shop lifting, Grams almost sent you to boarding school." Piper tilted her head getting an idea. "We should have sent these irresponsible boys to boarding school. That's what we should have done."

"Piper honey, they were going to get into as much trouble at boarding school as they did with us." Leo chuckled.

"Mrs. Halliwell?" Hector spoke up again. Everyone in the room turned to stare at the boy.

"Are you talking to me?" Piper smiled. Hector nodded. "You can call me Piper,"

"Mrs. Piper," Hector started and Paige and Phoebe snorted. "The Halliwell brothers are asleep and won't wake until they have been released by their nigt-mares."

"Nigt-mares?" Leo looked shocked.

"Nightmares?" Paige repeated confused.

"The evil spirits that torment good witches dreams. But the boys didn't tell me they were having nightmares." Leo stared at his sons. Chris started struggling against Phoebe grumbling.

"They have been looking tired," Phoebe ran her hand down Chris check, pressing against the dark circle under his eye. Piper sat down on the edge of the couch where Wyatt was lying, throwing her arm around his back and gently patting him.

"Come to think of it, all the kids have been looking tired." Paige suddenly realized.

"Melinda?" Leo asked his daughter.

"You were having a nightmare earlier baby, was that the first one?" Piper looked over at her husband and daughter.

"Demons are the reasons I've been having nightmares?" Dora squeaked from behind the desk.

"Oh, I'm going to kick some demon ass. Paige, Phoebe let's go! Tormenting my babies in their sleep, of all the stupid things for a demon to do." Piper jumped to her feet ready for action.

"Mrs. Piper, ma'am. Nigt-mares are evil spirits that are increasingly difficult to locate. It would be much easier to take precautions to them invading your dreams before bed. There's nothing that can be done for Wyatt and Chris until they wake, but the rest of the cousins can protect themselves from being attacked at all." Hector explained.

"He is correct. Very good Hector," Leo nodded approvingly at his student.

"Fine, we'll just protect the rest of them. But Leo these boys are staying here tonight. I will not have them sleeping like sitting ducks anywhere that's accessible to demons." Piper crossed her arms and sat back down.

Verity Vanguard stood in front of a movie theater, staring down at her cell phone. She puffed out air over her face, aggravated that she had once again been stood up by the famously over involved Chris Halliwell. She walked up to the ticket window and pulled out her wallet.

"Can I get one for Trojan Horse." She sighed. The teenager at the window looked at the beautiful Oracle Witch and gapped a bit before printing out her ticket.

"Can I get one for the same and pay for the lady's?" A man's hand jumped out and slipped cash under the teller window. Verity turned around almost hoping for Chris to be standing behind her but knowing it wouldn't be him. Instead she turned to see a handsome man with dark curly hair smiling at her.

"Being stood up by a Halliwell is such a common problem. Personally they left me in a lurch earlier." He smiled brightly.

"Who are you?" Verity sidestepped away from the man.

"Well your new date, a gorgeous girl like you deserves someone to treat her to a movie." He smiled wide at her again and offered her an arm.

"I can't read you." Verity squinted at him, ignoring his arm.

"Yes, well I'm complicated. How about I promise not to be magical for the evening. Just a normal evening when you're not a powerful half breed and I'm not anything either." The man winked as he expertly slipped his arm around Verity's waist.

"Well this might work," Verity giggled slightly at the man's touch and the two walked into the movie theater together.

**October 15, 2023 **

Patience yawned and stretched out her arms over a blue sheet. She carefully lifted the sheet and slipped out of the twin size bed where Dervin still lay asleep. Starring at the mirror she frowned at her morning appearance. She blew into her fingers and waved her hands over her face magically she sparkled with beauty. She picked up her undergarments from the ground and started slipping them back on and shimmed slowly into her jeans. She conjured a single red rose and turned to her sleeping boyfriend to find him blinking at her.

"We need to stop doing this." Dervin yawned.

"Don't worry about it so much." Patience winked at him.

"Your sister is missing." Dervin sat up in the bed. "And so is Patricia."

"They just went on a little time traveling trip, don't worry." Patience leaned forward and kissed Dervin on the cheek.

"The last time they disappeared, I almost died." Dervin whispered. Patience froze, the memory was not one she ever acknowledged but lately Dervin was insisting.

"But you didn't," Patience insisted stubbornly and pushed her lips onto his.

"Patience," Dervin struggled against her. But Patience was a determined little cupitch and she was wrapping her arms around his neck once again.

"Patience Calliope." A stern voice stopped the girl in her movement. Instantly she stepped back and tripped over Dervin's shoes.

"Coop, Sir…" Dervin snatched his shirt form the end of the bed and started to struggle putting it on.

"Patience, I want you to go home. Now." Coop sighed glancing at the young girl disappointed.

"Dad, I was just… It isn't what… I… You won't hurt him?" She finally settled on demands. The oldest of Phoebe and Coop's children was the most demanding, by nature.

"Patience,' Coop crossed his arms and glared at the teenager.

"You'll take me home?" Patience tried.

"No, you brought yourself here you can return yourself." Coop shook his head.

"But," Patience started her argument again but this time it was Dervin that interrupted her.

"Patience." He nodded his head at her father and gave her a critical stare. Patience sighed defeated by her father and boyfriend and a faint glow swallowed her.

Dervin took no time to jump out of the bed and scramble into his jeans before he acknowledged Coop again. Coop stood patiently waiting for the young man to be decent, the young man that shook with a core essence of love, first love, true love, a dangerous type of love all for Coop's oldest daughter. The older cupid could sense the love, almost taste it in the air. He could see the vision of Patience as Dervin saw her, perfect and slightly crazy. The teenage love was even stronger than most and Coop couldn't decipher if it was due to the powers of his girl or due to the actual nature of the affair.

"Sir?" Dervin finally asked. Dervin Rogers was not timid, not frightened, not making any excuses. He was a strong young man, an ambitious student and a strong willed individual. He understood and wasn't afraid of magic and every moment he worried about anything it usually had something to do with the Halliwells. Coop sighed.

"You know it's dangerous to love her," Coop started.

"I do sir," Dervin nodded. "I've tried not to, love her."

"Yes," Coop nodded slowly. "You know Penelope is missing?"

"Yes sir, she's in the past?" He asked cautiously.

"So it appears," Coop nodded again. "Dervin, I don't dislike you."

"I know." Dervin smiled slightly. "You dislike how reckless Pat is because of me, but you know that I try to make her be more careful. You know, it's the reason we fight. You know it's the reason I try to break it off…"

"You know what Chris has been doing?" Coop asked taking a few steps, slightly pacing in the small dorm. Dervin hesitated, he was use to being questioned about Patience and even her younger sisters but the mortal boyfriend wasn't often asked about his Halliwell brother friend.

"Well," Dervin fumbled with his hands and looked nervously at the carpet. "I'm not entirely sure what you mean."

Coop laughed at the nervous behavior, Dervin would be truthful and fearless in blame when it regarded Patience. But Chris' secrets weren't the same and the mortal still protected those secrets. Chris Halliwell picked his accomplices and confidences well, unlike the other cousins. Chris was always about strategy.

"He's been to Boston lately, I can sense his presence in this room though on the floor…" Coop sighed.

"He's… well, He's looking for the rising Source." Dervin finally broke the news.

"Has he explained what a new Source means?" Coop glanced at the boy and wondered how much he really knew. Dervin shrugged.

"Chris doesn't overly share. But I understand it's bad." He shifted uncomfortably. "Coop? Are you angry that I'm well… that I um, took your daughter's virtue?"

Coop laughed whole-heartedly at the question, though there was a tingle of parental hurt in the mirth. A flash of a little girl in pigtails running towards him flashed in his memory, but Coop ignored that. The cupid had been a creature of love, affection and sex for thousands of years he couldn't resent or be against the acts themselves. But fatherly affection was different, an emotion unlike anything Coop had ever himself experience. By resentful towards the young man that stood before him for helping his little girl grow up, was something he could learn to handle.

"Am I pleased with it? Not entirely. Am I anger? For different reasons than you might think. I am here though, because I need you to understand what I'm going to do and know that I don't dislike you at all…" Coop sighed sadly.

"You keep saying that and it makes me feel like something bad is going to happen…" Dervin frowned.

"I'm going to hide you from Patience, seal you off from her. But it's as much for your protection as your own." Coop explained. Dervin opened his mouth to protest the injustice but Coop raised his hand and silenced the young man.

"Only until we can contain these little problems, of Penelope and Patricia missing and the source. There are evil things brewing Dervin, very evil and ancient things stirring in the dark. I cannot have Patience running around, sneaking around to find you. She could be in danger. She could very well put you in danger. We are fast approaching All Hallows Eve, you know the dangerous things that can happen on that night…" Coop stated darkly.

"Magically seal me from her?" Dervin whispered. "She won't do well with it, Sir…"

"No, I'm afraid she won't. But it might be good for her, to learn to control her powers without depending on you." Coop sighed. "It must be done. I can't risk losing her, because of her headless teenage love affair. No offense."

"What does that mean for me, magically sealing?" Dervin asked.

"It works simply, I'm going to cloak you so she can't find you. She won't be able to sense you magically. It will be like you disappeared to her, she won't be able to call or locate you through any technology. Sealing magic is a powerful type of magic, not often used because it can harm a budding relationship." Coop warned.

"Do you think she'll forget me?" Dervin asked the old Cupid seriously. Coop was silent, as he stared out the window watching as rain started to pelt against the window.

"It's very unlikely. She will remember you and she will try like hell, if I know her, to find you and reach you." Coop nodded.

"But she won't be able to?" Dervin asked.

"No, and you won't be able to find her either." Coop started fidgeting with his ring.

"Are you ready?" Coop asked, more out of kindness to prepare the boy than out of giving him a choice.

"Phoebe and Patience are fighting." Dervin nodded starring out the window. Coop scratched behind his ear, studying the young man again carefully. Dervin Rogers was already magically teetered to Patience, much more than Coop had even recognized. The mortal boy could sense the powerful cupitch.

"Dervin?" Coop added before he disappeared in the magic. "You will still be able to contact Chris…" And with a rumbling of magic the sealing spell was finished and Dervin was left alone in his room starring at the unmade bed.

_Chris was dying on a queen-sized bed, Aunt Phoebe's old bed. He was pale and there was a dark purple stain growing larger on his chest. He was scrawny, much scrawnier than he had ever been in real life. Leo appeared, crying and struggling but Chris was dying. Aunt Paige stood in the hallway watching, as Chris disappeared into nothing leaving Leo sobbing. _

_ Piper was pregnant, very pregnant and standing in the attic with Cole. Cole was darker than usual, wearing black and dancing around with a strong shadow attached to him. Suddenly Cole threw an energy ball at Piper, but Piper blocked it with a blue shield. The battle raged between the two invincible powers, shaking and crashing the entire attic with power that hadn't been seen since. _

_ Chris stood on the steps of the manor, flickering like a bad television channel. He was running, running away from someone. A familiar and kindly looking man in a janitor suit but there was something oddly familiar about him. Chris flickered, disappearing often as he almost floated to the attic. _

_ Phoebe with a pixie cut stood in a police station, not yet entirely visibly pregnant. Murmuring was happening but suddenly flames shot from Phoebe's hands and a little trashcan started burning vindictively. Someone laughed at the vision, not an evil laugh but more like a laugh remembering the old foolish young days. _

_ A stone with a sword sat in the conservatory of the manor. A line of magical beings lined up trying to pull the sword from its spot in the stone but it wouldn't budge. Piper burst through annoyed and grabbed the sword and pulled it effortlessly from its stone prison. Everything changed and the sword was suddenly under the control of an infant version of the Wyatt Halliwell. As the sword was telekinetically controlled was sent into a demon without much effort. _

_ The visions blurred, flickering quickly with a tint of blood red as they danced around. _

A blast shook the private dormitory of the Halliwell family sending Wyatt and Chris forcefully into the right and left walls of the room.

"When I find the demon that's response for how much my head is pounding, I'm going to grind him into dust." Chris grumbled swaying slightly as he sat on the ground. "Unless of course it's my stupid brother's fault…"

"Yeah, blame me." Wyatt blinked a few times and tried to focus on the room. Laughter made both brothers focus their attention to the door of the familiar room before taking notice of each other.

"Hector?" Wyatt blinked confused.

"Perfect, of all the magical mishaps. You two had to go and break the heirloom that switches souls…" Hector shook his head giving the brothers a sad smile.

"Excuse me?" Chris demanded.

"The little heirloom, the orb that you crashed into Wyatt. It's a dreadfully powerful magical item that was stolen by the dark wizards of the first century. It is amazing! You two in your brotherly quarrel have proved what has only been guessed for centuries, that the Orb of Psyche, is in fact what has been used during the dark ceremonies of the source…" Hector swallowed carefully examining the room with his odd talent trying to detect the evil.

"The Orb of Psyche?" Chris asked.

"What are you talking about?" Wyatt jumped to his feet and turned to notice his brother. "Oh shit,"

"What?' Chris looked over at Wyatt and his eyes opened wider than usual. "We switched souls?"

"But, that's… Crap, crap. Mom is going to kill us." Wyatt, now Chris ran his hand through Wyatt's curls but disconcerted not to find his own straight hair. His fingers even got stuck in one of the golden knots.

"Don't you ever brush your hair Wy?" Chris snapped.

"Kill us? I'm going to kill you!" Chris, now Wyatt, flung his younger brother's body at his own body. Hector pushed his body against the wall.

"This is, if I may point out, the reason you're in this situation to begin with!" Hector shouted over the fighting brothers. Piper had walked into the room and clapped her hands together strongly, in a fit.

"STOP THAT!" She commanded. The magic schoolroom carried out the mother's command, creating a magical chasm between the brothers and pinning the boys to the ground.

"Damn it, stupid room." Wyatt's mouth grumbled. Piper's eyes flared starring at her oldest son with disapproval.

"Wyatt Halliwell, I do not approve of such language besides that very unlike you… It's usually much more like…" Piper squinted her eyes and stared at her sons a second.

"Sorry mom," Wyatt mumbled catching the curt nod from his own face from across the room.

"Why are we at magic school?" Chris asked. "And can you let us up please?" He asked the room. Piper wasn't convinced something strange wasn't happening but she nodded at the room and the brothers were magically released.

"Hector were the demons released then?" Piper asked the only boy in the room that wasn't her son. Hector Ariza could feel the need to protect the brother's secret practically rolling off both brothers.

"They were driven away by the brothers Mrs. Piper, ma'am. They succeed in confusing them." Hector smiled brightly.

"Well at least they are good at something…" Piper nodded. "Thanks Hector, you should go to class."

"Yes ma'am." Hector winked at Wyatt's body before he slipped out of the room.

"As for you two…" Piper turned around and crossed her arms. "What is going on?"

"Nothing mom." Wyatt responded immediately.

"Yeah nothing, we just ran into a little bit of trouble in the underworld. It was nothing we were looking for, I can assure you." Chris stated nodded.

"Chris just sense power and well we followed it into a ceremony chamber." Wyatt explained.

"Yeah, Wyatt noticed the demons coming in and well we tried to hide…" Chris encouraged.

"But then all hell broke lose and well we had to fight, and Chris got into some trouble that I tried to help him out of…" Wyatt smiled a bit wickedly at his own body.

"Wyatt did try his best to help me, but you know I didn't need his help. I had it all on my own." Chris puffed proudly, poking his chest out a bit.

"And then I guess, we got knocked out." Wyatt frowned.

"And Melinda brought us back, I felt her…" Chris nodded.

"You felt her?" Piper asked curiously.

"I think so, maybe Wyatt felt her… and I could just feel it because we were so close." Chris tried to save his own mistake.

"Right, that might be it because I definitely felt her." Wyatt nodded trying to cover the mistake.

"You boys are sure you're all right? You are acting strange…" Piper commented.

"Yes, sorry mom. I had some weird dreams." Wyatt smiled.

"Really weird dreams." Chris nodded.

"Apparently you boys were being attacked by nigt-mares, I'm looking for them though. I was thinking maybe that you boys should stay here, until we fix that little problem." Piper was suggesting but both boys started arguing loudly immediately. Piper held up her hands.

"All right, fine. But," Piper crossed her arms and turned to Chris, now unknown to her actually Wyatt.

"Christopher Perry, I want the truth. All of it now, about what you have been doing and what you know. And if I don't get it, I'm going to magically bind your powers and put a magical leash on you attaching you to me." Piper glared at her youngest.

"Mom, you can't be serious…" Wyatt started in his brother's voice. He looked desperately at his own face, begging Chris to help him.

"Mom, you can't bind his powers what if the rising source attacks?" Chris tried to reason with his mother.

"I can not stand by without any information, I will not allow this nonsense to keep going any longer." Piper shook her head.

"Mom, it could be dangerous though." Wyatt begged, from Chris body. It was strange that for the first time he was experiencing this lecture from the wrong side.

"It is dangerous Christopher. It's even more dangerous to be sulking around, hiding information from his mother and family." Piper stated stubbornly.

"Mom, why don't you let me have some time to figure it out… if I can't get it out of him then you can bind his powers?" Wyatt suggested. Chris, in Wyatt's body, looked calm and confident in his plan much like the real Wyatt often appeared.

"Fine, a day. At Sunset, I expect to know EVERYTHING that's going on. Do you boys understand me?" Piper snapped her lips. She walked up to Chris carefully and kissed the boy on the cheek.

"Be good for your brother," She winked. She turned around and gave her older son a hug and whispered almost the same phrase.

"Be good to your brother," Before she left the room, ready to fight demon spirits she was determined to find.

"You've run out of places to hide, Christopher." Wyatt crossed his arms over his brother's chest, defensively standing in his usual stance.

"And you are so over dramatic." Chris shoved Wyatt's hands into the pockets of Wyatt's pants.

"Look I have class, that I can't miss for the second day in a row…" Wyatt was checking the clock on the wall, after noticing that Chris didn't wear a wristwatch.

"And I have to teach my magical defense class to the munchkins." Chris responded after fumbling around the pockets of his brother's jacket and jeans trying to find a cell phone.

"You have trade places," A voice from around the mirror suggested. "That is if you're going to keep trying to hide it from Piper." The voice sounded familiar, a voice of an old friend that had helped before. The brothers starred at each other remembering that they were no longer themselves.

"So you'll teach the munchkins class? You're not good with kids…" Chris looked doubtfully at his brother, oddly shorter in his body.

"And you can't be normal longer than five minutes…" Wyatt frowned up at himself.

"We're going to have to do this right now," Chris sighed.

"Someone is calling you," Wyatt pulled out a cell phone. Chris dove trying to grab it before Wyatt answered, unsuccessfully.

"Hello?" Wyatt held out his arm trying to keep Chris at bay, only to realize that the action was much easier in his own body. Adapting quickly, Wyatt did what his younger brother always did and started running. Chris stumbled surprised by Wyatt's action, realizing his surprise too late.

"An appointment, I'm sorry could you remind me where and what the appointment was for?" Wyatt asked calmly into the phone. Chris ran after Wyatt, not as agile in his older brother's body as he usually was in his own.

"Your legs are like lead!" Chris complained.

"In Boston? Yes, I'll be there. Thank you Miss Hammond." Wyatt snapped the phone shut and turned to glare at his brother.

"Magic always works for a reason." Wyatt smiled wickedly taunting before he orbed away from his own body.

"Fine! You're probably hiding something too Wyatt! Don't think I won't find out, I've always knew when you were hiding Gigi Thorth in your room!" Chris cursed under his own breath and tapped into his brother's power and willed the body to orb to the right place.

* * *

_AUTHOR'S NOTE: I told you it was going to get complicated, didn't I? Let me know what you think? What you think is going to happen? What you would like to see happen? You never know, I've been known to listen to feedback before... _

_Also a special thanks to my one repeated reviewer, your words are always much appreciated. ;)  
_


	10. Something Can't Confess

_Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you all enjoy! Trying to finish this next chapter by the end of the week, though I make no promises._

* * *

**Something Can't Confess **

_Secrets, One Republic _

**October 14, 1992 **

Penny Halliwell sat at her ancient dining table, calmly across from Penelope and Patricia. A stormy and loud Phoebe had stomped and slammed quite a few doors on her way to her room, but had disappeared since she had arrived.

"So what exactly can I help you with?" Penny asked her hands folded over a cup of tea. Tricia looked expectantly at Penelope. Neither girl had come up with a plan quite yet.

"We have traveled a long way," The young Penelope started explaining.

A vision flashed before Patricia, as the girl dropped her glass of water and let it shatter underneath her.

"Are you all right child?" Penny gave Patricia a shocked stare that reminded the young lady of her mother, quite a bit.

"Yes, I'm sorry. Startled a bit. We've been running from demons for some time." Tricia explained.

"Alone?" Penny frowned at the young girls. Penelope and Tricia nodded, though Pen was glancing nervously at Tricia.

"That's why we have sought you out. You are a Warren Witch and we have heard of your magical abilities." Tricia stated confidently.

"Well darling, what is it that you need from me?" Penelope smiled, feeling a sense of pride swell.

"We would like you…" Pen started but Tricia held out her arm signaling for her to stop.

"I want you to permanently bind my powers." Tricia stated seriously.

"Tri… I mean, Helen… You can't be serious?" Penelope gapped at her.

"Your friend was not aware this is why you were coming?" Penny asked suspiciously.

"My young friend does not understand that magic is the reason for all our problems." Tricia shrugged.

"Magic makes you who you are dear," Penny studied the girl sitting in front of her. Tricia with her light brown hair and hazel eyes, burning with a desire, looked far too familiar.

"We arrived here on accident, possibly by dark magic! We were just going to ask for guidance to returning home…" Penelope shook her head, desperately trying to regain control of the situation.

Penny caught sight of the young witch's eyes and frowned suddenly.

"Your eyes are purple…" Penny commented.

"Phoebe is climbing down the fire escape," Penelope choked looking away from her great grandmother.

"Ah curse that girl," Penny sighed as she ruffled through her pockets and pulled out a little black book.

"For a Halliwell that will not heed her elder's word, keep her sealed within her home." Penny mumbled the spell quickly, almost to softly for either cousin to understand. But Phoebe was no longer as close as she had been and Penelope's eyes returned to a controlled dark brown with only a hint of purple.

"You are powerful indeed." Penny glanced at the girls again. But she stood now and walked around the kitchen counter.

"I think we came from a powerful family, from Europe." Pen tried explaining.

"But we have long since been left alone, our family killed off one by one by demons." Tricia explained. Pen glared at her and kicked the older cousin in the ankle underneath the table.

"Are you sisters than?" Penny asked.

"Cousins." Pen mumbled through clenched teeth.

"Binding your powers might not stop the attacks you know," Penny explained carefully walking around the dinning table. Tricia shifted uncomfortably as she felt the heavy gaze of a maternal strength.

"I have explained that." Pen nodded.

"I want to be normal," Tricia mumbled.

"Being normal is overrated. You are special." Penny stated simply as she sat back down. Piper had often said the same thing to Melinda, now the cousins knew where the phrase had come from.

"We were sent here for a reason." Tricia argued.

"Yes, I suppose you were." Penny nodded.

"It wasn't for this," Penelope argued.

"But neither of you know for sure, do you?" Penny tapped her fingers on the table, thinking to herself.

"Well no," Pen whispered.

"I will make you both a deal," Penny nodded to herself pleased with her own idea. "We will give the magic time to work, three days. If by the third day you still want me to bind your powers, I will."

"But," Pen jumped up to protest.

"Ah," Penny held out her finger in a maternal fashion that demanded silence. "You came for my help and my wisdom and this is what you get. You can stay here, in Prue and Piper's old room and you are registered in school in this city?"

"Yes ma'am." Tricia replied chirper. Pen threw her cousin a dirty look, her eyes shifted into a blood red that didn't last.

"Well yes, then that's of course what we'll do. Go on up then, second door on the right. Wash up before dinner." Penny waved her hands at the girls before turning to her stove.

"I'm going to kill you, in your sleep." Pen grumbled.

"Girls, I won't tolerate fighting." Penny shouted at them before they started up the stairs. Pen shook with anger but nothing could bother Patricia, who happily skipped up the stairs convinced she was finally going to finally get her normal life. The girls walked into the familiar hallway of the second floor and Phoebe was walking out of the bathroom.

"Who are you people?" Phoebe asked harshly before re-entering her room.

"Your grandmother knows our parents, they are out of town for a few days. She is letting us crash her." Patricia explained the story that Penny had developed earlier.

"Right, good luck with that." Phoebe snorted before slamming her door.

**October 15, 2023 **

Patience sat at the bar of her family's loft, uncontrollably crying. Coop appeared in the kitchen as Phoebe was walking down the stairs, and Patience looked up at her father as if she was about to speak but her mouth hung open without sound.

"Princess, why are you crying?" Phoebe asked. But Coop shook his head.

"Hold on," He whispered. Patience stared at her parents and the tears stopped.

"I can't remember something," She frowned.

"Coop?" Phoebe questioned her husband. Coop gave his daughter a sad smile.

"It's your little sister's birthday tomorrow, and you promised that you would help?" Coop prompted.

"That might be it," Patience said slowly not looking convinced. She rose from her stool, the dry tracks of her tears still visible in the afternoon sun as she proudly strolled into her room.

"Coop?" Phoebe turned around and crossed her arms.

"She can't remember Dervin," Coop admitted.

"She can't what now?" Phoebe threw her hands up surprised.

"That's where I found her," Coop started to explain. "In Dervin's dorm room."

"Wait, what? She's grounded! she can't go flittering around to her boyfriend's dorm room. Though, if I could have transported myself as a teenager, oh the places I would have gone." Phoebe grabbed a cup of coffee.

"Phoebe," Coop sighed.

"Right, like I said she is totally grounded. I'm going to have a few words with Miss Patience about her little habit of completely disregarding when she's grounded." Phoebe started moving forward towards her oldest child's room but Coop wrapped his hands around her shoulders and pulled him back.

"Phoebe, she can't remember Dervin. I sealed them from each other." Coop explained to his wife.

"Sealed them? Isn't that the dangerous cupid thing that creates lost lovers?" Phoebe focused on her husband's eyes, placing one hand on his chest and finding the beat of his heart.

"It's only temporary Phoebe, very temporary. It shouldn't affect anything. Honestly, I don't even think she'll not remember him for long. But it's for their own safety. She's reckless, he's reckless when their together and with Penelope missing and the rising new source. I can't bear the thought that I could lose her," Coop stated stubbornly avoiding the disappointment in his wife's eyes.

"Coop, you're a cupid! You believe in the power of love, its part of your nature." Phoebe took a step back, trying to force Coop to look at her.

"I also know the dark power of love, and so do you." Coop whispered.

"I don't like this Coop, I don't like it at all. And I'm not pleased that you went ahead and made a decision that affected one of OUR girls without me." Phoebe stepped away from Coop, annoyed at her husband but not mad at his protective nature.

"Phoebe, I can feel how distracted she has been. I could sense the danger." Coop tried to explain.

"She's a teenage girl! For heaven's sake Coop, you can't keep her from growing up." Phoebe shouted.

"Phoebe! Keep your voice down. I am not trying to keep her from growing up, I'm trying to keep her from dying young like so many of her ancestors…" Coop said the words forcefully until he noticed his wife's falling face.

"Like Prue? Like Andy? Is that what you mean?" Phoebe snapped.

"A rising source isn't trouble for you and your sisters anymore. It's trouble for the boys and our girls," Coop stepped forward.

"Are you fighting?" Primrose had wandered out of her room and the living room.

"No bug, we're not fighting." Phoebe wiped a tear away from her cheek before scurrying over to her youngest.

"It sounded like you were fighting." Primrose stated squirming away from her mother and towards her father. Coop bent down and scooped up the girl, lovingly hugging her into his chest. At least one of his daughters was safe, young and not in love.

"Not fighting," Coop winked at her.

"Is mommy mad at Patience or is she mad at you?" Primrose wrinkled her nose at her father, as if she could smell the emotion.

"Both of us, apparently Patience isn't the only one that makes mistakes." Coop laughed. Phoebe giggled at her husband and youngest, forgetting her anger and fear.

"Are you both scared for Penelope?" Primrose asked her parents.

"Why would you ask us that, bug?" Phoebe frowned at the little girl as she rubbed the girl's back.

"I can smell scared and anger." Primrose shrugged.

"You can smell it?" Phoebe sniffed at the air trying to understand the little girl.

"Yes and it also smells of sad and confused." Primrose nodded squirming down out of her father's arms and skipping towards Patience room.

"Yes, sad and confused." Primrose pointed at the door.

"She can smell emotions, maybe the bug is going to get your empath power?" Coop shrugged.

"We had to have half-breeds." Phoebe sighed still frowning at Primrose.

"Dervin and Penelope are going to miss my birthday party." Prim turned to reproach her parents.

"Not because they want to, when your sister gets back we'll celebrate again. You never know she might be back tomorrow." Phoebe leaned down with her hands on her knees.

"As of right now, you have magical defense class with Chris." Coop quickly reminded the girl before she could point out anymore of his or Phoebe's insecurities.

"Chris is going to teach us how to kick today!" Primrose clapped excitedly. Phoebe laughed as she imagined many of her valuables being kicked and broken.

Chris felt an invisible light guiding him, like a ghost memory of Wyatt's body, to his destination. He nervously ran his hand through his brother's hair, aggravated to get his fingers caught in the tangled curls.

"Stupid surfer hair, he insists on having." Chris grumbled. He sat himself down at a little metal table, near a coffee cart before he realized that he wasn't in a classroom at all.

"I thought he said something about class," Chris frowned trying to think about a classroom but feeling the power of another's mind. There was no doubt in Chris mind that he belonged in this spot, at this time.

A pair of brown knee high boots kicked up onto Wyatt's jean clad knee. Chris stared up, wishing he had sunglasses as the sun beamed into his eyes.

"Feeling reckless today?" Bianca frowned down at him. Chris stared at her, confused by her presence and familiarity. Bianca was sporting a jersey knit green dress that tightly fit around her shoulders down to her waist until it flared out until half way down her thigh. She lifted her arms, slipping her hands above his head suddenly pulling down a pair of sunglasses dropped over Chris' eyes.

"Where did those come from?" Chris jumped.

"You conjured them, what are you taking lessons from rebel without a cause?" Bianca laughed.

"Rebel without a cause?" Chris asked still trying to make sense of the situation.

"Little brother?" Bianca frowned at him.

"Me…I mean, Chris?" Chris asked now.

"Yes, my. He must have shaken you up. What happened? I stopped by your dorm to visit you last night, but you weren't there…" Bianca pouted.

"Bianca," Chris finally stated, remembering the woman in front of him. "You tried to kill…Chris."

"I thought we were over that," Bianca slipped her hands around Wyatt's torso. Chris felt her touch and remembered the feel of the soft hands, but not in the same way as Wyatt.

"Bianca," Chris whispered again trying to reach a memory far beyond him.

"Or are you trying to get me to make it up to you…" Bianca whispered into his ear as she pressed her lips onto his. Chris struggled for a moment, as memories of Wyatt's body reacted faster than the memories of his mind could. Struggled only for seconds before he just started kissing back.

"Are we dating?" Chris asked as Bianca released him.

"I suppose we are, young king." Bianca winked at him.

"I am so going to kill him," Chris growled.

"Usually, maybe though just for today you can let mom deal with him?" Bianca smiled brightly. "Not be big brother protector, let the kid suffer some consequences."

"Oh, he's going to get some consequences…" Chris mumbled darkly. Bianca shook her head and pushed Chris in Wyatt's body back down on the table.

"We have a paper to write anyway." Bianca settled across the table from him. "Aren't you going to offer to get us coffee?" She asked him surprised as she pulled out her notebook that Wyatt was just sitting and staring at her.

"Coffee," Chris stated and two cups appeared onto the table.

"Wyatt!" Bianca snapped at him, trying to move her hands over the cups of coffee. She shuffled the items around, attempting to confuse anyone looking unto the scene.

"What is wrong with you?" Bianca glared at him.

"I don't know," Chris stared at the coffee. He knew he had managed to conjure them. Wyatt's magic worked much differently than his own, and his power was jumping to be used. Chris could feel the beat of the magic coursing through his brother's body.

"How does he manage to control it," Chris shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Are you feeling all right?" Bianca whispered leaning her body over the table and placing her hand over Chris twitching hand.

"Yeah, let's just get this done. If he can do this then so can I." Chris snapped his fingers under the table, focusing his thoughts on Wyatt's backpack. The bag appeared in his hand, almost at the very thought.

"You and Chris having some kind of mental argument there, Wyatt?" Bianca smiled mockingly at the boy.

"Something like that," Chris nodded. The two started opening notebooks and books and sipping on their conjured coffee.

Chris stood in the middle of the empty classroom as Wyatt was trying to will his brother's body to orb. The lesson had not gone as smoothly as Wyatt had hoped. It was harder than it sounded to teach the munchkins, as Chris so lovingly called them, than Wyatt ever gave to his brother.

"If I admit that he is a better teacher than me, then will I orb?" Wyatt demanded of the ceiling.

"Having trouble Wyatt?" Primrose squeaked as she shuffled out from underneath a pile of cushions.

"Primrose! I thought you left with Uncle Coop ages ago…" Wyatt turned around startled. He frowned realizing that the youngest cousin had called him Wyatt and not Chris.

"Daddy needed to check out some materials from the library, so I came back to check on you. Why do you look like Chris? Is Chris in trouble?" Primrose skipped along the lines of the marble flooring, nonchalantly questioning her oldest cousin.

"I am Chris," Wyatt responded immediately, pointing to his body.

"No," Primrose stopped skipping, one foot balancing in the air as she gave him a resentful stare. "You're Wyatt, Chris never talks like you do…"

"Never talks like I do?" Wyatt demanded, bending down to stare at the short cupitch in front of him.

"And you don't have much patience," Primrose nodded.

"Patience! Yeah because Christopher uses it all up…" Wyatt grumbled.

"You are Wyatt!" Primrose giggled.

"You can't tell anyone," Wyatt started.

"Usually, I can't." Primrose shrugged. Wyatt frowned and suddenly out shot his hands to hold Primrose still.

"What secrets are you hiding for Chris?" Wyatt asked the girl. Primrose sparked energy from her shoulders, sending Chris' body backwards. Wyatt sat on the ground looking confused about why the young girl's power could have such an affect on him.

"Secrets, Wyatt." Primrose stuck out her tongue.

"Look here, Prim. If Chris is doing something naughty you must tell me," Wyatt clenched his fists in frustration.

"If Chris in trouble now?" Primrose asked again.

"When I find him…" Wyatt started grumbling before he noticed how concerned his young cousin looked. "No, not right now."

"Can you not use his powers?" Primrose placed her hands on her hips. Wyatt licked his lips, impatiently and uncomfortably shifting under the little girl's gaze.

"No, I didn't think so. I can smell your frustration." Primrose wrinkled her nose up in disgust. "I dislike the smell."

"You can smell it?" Wyatt stared confused at her. Coop stepped back into the room, laughing.

"She's been doing that since this morning. Surprised Wyatt hasn't called, noticed the oddity of the power itself." Coop outstretched his arms for Primrose as she jumped up.

"Your girlfriend is rather upset with you, not that I want to get involved because believe me Christopher, I have more than a few things to say about your dating an Oracle, and if Wyatt were to find out…" Coop shook his head. Somehow Chris' face remained unchanged, Wyatt stood shocked.

"Try letting your need guide you." Primrose whispered as Coop winked and the two disappeared. Wyatt took a deep breath, feeling his hands shaking with his own anger as he finally orbed away.

The small cottage of Melinda Warren sat majestically tranquil in the New England countryside. Upon first glance nothing would seem unusual or particularly striking about the site, but step inside the four walls and chaos was abundant.

Nemod sat like a toddler in his parent's chair, his knees inches apart and his fist clenched over the wooden table in front of him. The demon's dark eyes were fixated on the wall that shelves holding glass vials, some with gleaming red blood and others still empty. Schedules, photographs, post-it notes and lunar calendars were pasted onto the wall, like an odd assembly of a high school girl's room. Nemod was throwing darts at the wall in a nonchalant manner while pursuing his lips critically at the demons gathered around his table.

"You should be prepare with the underworld to take power, instead of prancing around like vampire after blood. Many of more powerful demons have been led astray from their purpose by the Charmed Ones." A glowing member of the triad chastised Nemod.

"I'm not following the charmed ones." Nemod rolled his eyes.

"Your insolence should not be tolerated!" The member of the triad shouted.

"Yet, you will tolerate it because without me you would still be a whimpering glow of nothing. For…" The young demon paused for dramatic effect and counted on his fingers, "another forty years."

Nemod leaned forward, winking at the glowing triad member. The triad member glowered at the young demon but pressed his lips together in silence.

"You cannot ignore the traditional preparations!" Another demon stated roughly.

"Maybe I won't, but I am doing my own preparations so those are on my priority list." Nemod shrugged.

"The second moon phase is upon us, there are responsibilities. You can not expect the underworld to take to you as much as the Halliwells have," Yet another demon snapped.

"The Halliwells haven't quite taken to me," Nemod laughed.

"You must gain the support of the underworld before you can begin the ceremonial steps that must begin on the first night of the visible full moon." The dark demon with a scarred face grumbled at the end of the table.

"I have been summoning demons from the ancient depths of the earth, the underworld will accept me." Nemod snarled.

"Christopher's appointment." The Seer floated into the room.

"Yes, well darkly creatures. I suspect the brothers Halliwell will be wandering into our humble abode in about…" Nemod stared at the Seer.

"Fifteen minutes, Sir." She stated simply.

"Yes, and I have to summon some friends for them you understand?" Nemod waved off the older elite of the demons.

"I can not crown you, without the process." The scared demon warned before the four demons disappeared. Nemod was left with his seer as Klea appeared.

"New recruits yet?" He smiled at the floating eyes.

"You must decide, watch the Halliwells or get new members of the brotherhood." Klea snapped in irritation.

"Why can no one in the underworld multitask? This is why good magic always wins with us, have you seen the charmed ones? Fighting demons, having children, opening business. I mean there is nothing those three women can't do…" Nemod glanced down at the table, where Phoebe's picture opened her column on marriage.

"Twelve minutes." The Seer stated.

"Yes, how about some mummies?" Nemod laughed.

"And the blinding incantation?" Klea tapped her foot.

"Yes, yes. Take care of that will you? Tell the mummies, to wait until the boys are lulled into security. And that I want Wyatt's blood tonight, I'm going to go talk to our nigt-mare friends." Nemod clapped his hands and dissolved into smoke.

Chris appeared a mile away, standing confused in the mist of the woods. He spun around and trying to decipher where he was.

"How is it that I came to be here?" Wyatt wondered to himself. A voice somewhere in his mind responded.

"You switched souls, but it's Chris body. A body that knows its own patterns."

"That doesn't even make sense." Wyatt scratched his brother's temples. A series of white orbs appeared next, forming into Wyatt's familiar body.

"I never noticed you are shorter than I am…" Wyatt glanced up at Chris.

"And I never took you for a lying self-centered older brother." Chris spat back at him.

"Seriously? We're in the middle of some wood because you have the reckless need to chase demons like a maniac with a death wish!" Wyatt punched his own shoulder.

"You're dating someone who tried to kill me!" Chris smacked the back of his own head.

"And you're dating an ORACLE little brother?" Wyatt crossed his arms, hoping he looked as menacing in Chris body as he often did in his own. The brothers stood glaring at each other, magic tensing the air around them enough to make the hairs on their arms still high.

"Excuse me, are one of you Christopher Halliwell?" A woman in a matching business suit had wandered up to the bickering siblings.

"I…" Chris started but Wyatt quickly snapped in.

"I'm Chris, this is my brother." He snapped annoyed.

"His older brother," Chris nodded. Wyatt shot him a your pushing your luck look, but Chris simply ignored it.

"Well the property is down this way," The woman led the boys down a path.

"The property?" Chris whispered.

"Once belonged to your family, correct Mr. Halliwell?" The woman glanced over her shoulder at the younger of the brothers.

"Um," Wyatt stared at her.

"Yes, It was in the family for over a century, before a great aunt abandoned it as a summer cottage. I think sometime in the late 1800s the city declared it a possible historical site, but never generated enough funds to maintain it as a museum." Wyatt nodded.

"Yes you've done your research. When Chris contacted me I did some research myself, I explored the site and the house surprisingly is intact. Historic societies have been using it for events but you were quite right it is still very livable and cozy." The realtor nodded and smiled.

"Livable?" Wyatt stared at his own blue eyes, trying to focus on the reflection of Chris' own green irises. The woman stopped strolling and pulled out a key in front of the small quaint cottage.

"I have collected the proper paperwork and listing prices for you to look over. Would you like to look at those now?" The woman asked as she pushed the door open.

"Actually I think I would like to inspect the place with my brother, alone for a second. If you don't mind?" Wyatt asked sweetly.

"Of course, take your time." The woman smiled and nodded, stepping away as she pulled out her phone. Chris tried to step in quicker than Wyatt, but his own hand shot out and grabbed him instantly.

"Livable? What is this Christopher?" Wyatt demanded as the boys stepped into the darken entry hall.

"This is Melinda Halliwell's cottage, and we won't have much time to look at it but I think it may be Nemod's headquarters. So you can lecture later," Chris struggled out of his brother's arm.

"You were going to come here alone?" Wyatt stated through his gritted teeth.

"Usually." Chris smiled as he wandered into the dark home. Cobwebs spread out across the hallways and high up in the corners of the cottage. Piles of dust coated the surfaces and the place appeared as if it had been abandoned for decades.

"And we are here because?" Wyatt asked, with a twinge of Chris' regular sarcasm dripping through.

"I thought that Nemod was based here, for sure…" Chris commented as he climbed the small staircase. Wyatt tried to hold out his hands to feel for the power that had to be radiating from the place if his brother was correct. But the young man forgot that his powers hadn't transferred with his soul. There was a blast from above that shook the walls of the cottage and caused a rain of dust and dirt to fall upon Wyatt's head.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Wyatt shouted.

"NOT SURE!" Chris shouted back faintly.

Wyatt jogged up the creaking stairs to find his brother. Wyatt found Chris underneath a broken bookcase.

"What did you do?" Wyatt sighed as he started to lift pieces of wood off his brother.

"I was thinking about how this place had to be Nemod's headquarters, and then this thing exploded." Chris kicked off more pieces of wood.

"My powers are more subtle than yours," Wyatt mumbled.

"How do you manage it? Just a thought conjures things." Chris jumped up and wiped dust from his arms and shook it out of his hair.

"Control little brother, its all about control." Wyatt nodded. "You should be able to sense if there is more power here."

"Sense it? How do I know if I'm sensing power?" Chris complained.

"You always were bad at new powers, might be why you haven't gotten one in ages." Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"Yes, yes let's point out how much more powerful you are, yet again," Chris shoved his brother.

"Do you want my help or not?" Wyatt crossed his arms and took a step back. Chris leaned back against the wall and tried yet again to run his hand through his hair.

"Don't you ever comb your stupid hair?" Chris snapped.

"How many fights have you been in lately? I think one of your ribs is broken," Wyatt rubbed his brother's ribcage, wincing in pain.

"Yeah… so how do I do this power sensing thing?" Chris asked holding out his hands, pretending to grab invisible items.

"Not your best avoidance transition," Wyatt rolled his eyes but stepped forward again.

"You have to concentrate, feel your own power." Wyatt suggested. Chris frowned.

"You mean your power," He grumbled.

"Ok, can you for once focus on the task at hand and not have a Christopher Pity Party?" Wyatt snapped. Chris held up his hands and closed his eyes and tried to focus. He could feel the power, the same power he had been feeling all day. With that thought Chris realized that now he could feel the difference in power, different powers. Before Chris could understand the powers, the door burst open and a menacing grunting was the only warning the either brother received before being thrown through the second story window.

"You couldn't tell me there was a demon coming?" Wyatt groaned in pain.

"Couldn't tell you what I didn't know," Chris felt the familiar trickle of blood on his leg, but only for seconds before Wyatt's body self healed.

"If you didn't have enough injuries…" Wyatt stated faintly before knocking out. Chris panicked and jumped to his feet to look over his own body. He now could sense the dark powers behind him.

"I don't even self heal as well as you do, thanks for that big brother…" Chris whined as he placed his hands over his own body expectantly.

"Come on, come on." Chris shook his hands trying to make them heal his brother. He could feel the darker powers getting close. He glanced over his shoulder and noticed the fast moving mummies.

"Crap, I can't do this right now. Really, MUMMIES?" Chris shouted at the house in anger. He put his hand on his shoulder and the brothers orbed away from the cabin quickly.

It was hours before Wyatt woke up to a headache and an unfamiliar bed. He groaned as he sat up slowly and scanned his dark surroundings.

"You have blood on your clothing again," Melinda sighed. "You should change before dinner, because mom is already on the war path about you."

"Christ Melinda, are you trying to give me a heart attack?" Wyatt jumped. Melinda frowned.

"You usually know that I'm here," She whispered.

"Sorry Mels, I'm just a little edgy." Wyatt flicked his wrist at the lights switch causing the room to flood with colors.

"Wyatt left you here hours ago. Why didn't he heal you? Did you piss him off again? Is he trying to teach you some kind of lesson again? And why is your healing taking so much longer lately?" Melinda jumped to her feet, running over to examine her brother.

"What do you mean my healing is taking longer? And I do not leave either of you two ever hurt to teach you any sorts of lessons, how dare you suggest something like that Melinda." Wyatt snapped starring at his brother's bare torso in the mirror.

"Wyatt?" Melinda squinted at the reflection of her brother.

"Yes, Wyatt would never leave me hurt…" Wyatt tried to fix his slip of the tongue. But Melinda was on to the scent that something was different, but before the girl could put her finger on anything Piper's voice beckoned her children down to the dinner.

"Go on down, tell mom I will be right there?" Wyatt winked at her in a way he had seen Chris do countless times to relax their youngest sister. Melinda pursed her lips but ducked out of her brother's room.

The kitchen of Halliwell Manor smelled of baked cupcakes and cookies, as Piper had been preparing for Primrose's birthday party most of the afternoon. Piper was scooping out pasta onto her daughter's plate, while Leo was pouring out some lemonade.

"You both know that Melinda is old enough to serve herself dinner?" Wyatt commented as he jogged into the room, he started pulling out his regular chair where no place setting sat but a concerned frown from Melinda made him realize his mistake.

"You would think you would be old enough to get to dinner on time and be clean," Piper frowned at him. Wyatt slid down into his seat and snatched a bread roll.

"Sorry mom," He mumbled.

"I heard you had some trouble with the kids this morning," Leo steered the conversation away from his wife.

"Was a little off my game this morning is all," Wyatt shrugged.

"Are you still not getting any sleep?" Piper demanded.

"Piper, can't we enjoy dinner before you grill into the boy?" Leo begged.

"Fine," Piper sighed annoyed.

"Mom, can I go out and buy Primrose a present after dinner?" Melinda asked sweetly.

"You're still grounded." Piper responded.

"While you're yelling at Chris?" Melinda pushed.

"Melinda," Leo frowned at her.

"What were you thinking about getting?" Wyatt asked as trying to diffuse tension.

"This nail art kit, she's totally going to love. Don't you want her to have a great birthday party?" Melinda asked her mother.

"Melinda," Leo frowned.

"I would ask Chris to take me, but seeing as he has a scheduled lecture tonight…" Melinda shrugged.

"You're just a lovely sister," Wyatt shook his head.

"You can be gone for thirty minutes and that's it, and just because I need more frosting for the cupcakes that you can pick up while you're gone." Piper gave in.

"Thanks mom!" Melinda smiled brightly at her mother. "This pasta is delicious."

"You got what you wanted already, no need to suck up." Wyatt popped his lips.

"Do you not like my pasta peanut?" Piper smiled slightly.

"Of course mom, everything you make is delicious." Wyatt smiled.

"Now who's sucking up," Melinda mumbled.

The dinner went by quickly in family banter and discussion of Primrose's birthday. The youngest Halliwell was having a craft birthday party at the local painting ceramics shop. At the end of dinner, Melinda ran out the door snatching the extra set of Jeep keys from the hook leaving her brother sitting at the table with both parents.

"Are you ready to tell us what exactly has been going on Christopher?" Piper folded her arms calmly in front of her. Wyatt shifted his weight uncomfortably under his mother's critical stare and his father's disappointed face.

"I thought we were going to call Wyatt," Wyatt squeaked.

"We wanted to give you the opportunity to tell us without having to call Wyatt," Leo sighed and Wyatt could hear the disappointment. He hated his younger brother for putting him in this position, this predicament of disappointing both his parents no matter how removed. There was an awkward silence, unfamiliar to Wyatt but rather common for the body he was residing in. Often, Chris played chicken with his own parents seeing who would tire of the silence first.

"Fine, I'm calling your brother and if he won't explain it either I am calling your aunts. And you are going to wish you were more reasonable." Piper stated stubbornly. She whipped out her phone and pressed a button quickly, pressing the phone to her ear. Leo stared at Wyatt, calmly and collected.

"Son?" Leo whispered. Wyatt snapped his attention to Leo, carefully studying the way that his father stared at his younger brother. There was something different, a reservation, a brimming fear of something that Wyatt didn't recognize.

"You can't do everything alone because you think you should, or because you're trying to prove you can…" Leo started quietly.

"Dad, that's not…" Wyatt started arguing but Leo shook his head.

"You have to be careful, if anything happened to you it would devastate all of us. I don't think you understand how much it would ruin the entire family…"

Wyatt's eyes stung at the guilt tearing through his body now, how could Chris deal with these guilt trips? Wyatt knew that his younger brother often had to put up with this unfounded guilt trips that eluded to his past self, dying in his father's arms.

"Wyatt, I want you here now. I want you to tell me what is going on immediately." Piper was snapping into the phone.

"What do you mean you can't come right now?" Piper hand tapped impatiently at the table. Wyatt snapped his head towards his mother, what game was his brother playing.

"Wyatt?" Wyatt said loudly. Piper pressed the speakerphone button on her cell and placed the little square on the table.

"I'm busy with a school project, sorry mom. But little brother didn't tell me anything anyway, as stubborn as the stone that Excalibur was in…" Chris stated sarcastically. A memory clicked in Wyatt, it was Sunday night and he had a date with Bianca involving training. Chris couldn't seriously be doing this to him; Wyatt was already plotting out his revenge on his younger brother. He was too busy with his plans to notice the strange look of confusion that had crossed his father's face.

"Did you even try to get it out of him Wyatt?" Piper was now demanding.

"I did mom, he's just being unreasonable. I even followed him to another demon attack earlier, or did he not tell you about that?" Chris followed the same pattern that Wyatt had often attempted in the same position. In an aggravated reaction to Chris keeping secrets at all, Wyatt often over shared things that would get the younger brother in trouble with their mother.

"Why didn't you call me then?" Piper asked alarmed. Wyatt couldn't help but smile. He had often walked into this same trap.

"I thought that if we did things his way, he might finally trust me enough to tell me what is going on but…" Chris sighed. Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"All right pumpkin, remember to use a dream catcher and drink tea before bed tonight? I don't want those nigt-mares to be attacking you before I can get to them." Piper pleaded before bidding Wyatt, or at least who she thought to be her oldest, good night.

"Anything to say for yourself young man?" Piper demanded. Wyatt opened his mouth, ready to confess anything. The problem was that Wyatt didn't know anything about what Chris had been doing and he had never been good at lying or creating stories like Chris.

"Mom why can't you just trust me to take care of this?" Wyatt begged.

"There is a point at which, it is dangerous for us not to know what's going on. Two of your cousins are stuck in the past," Leo started.

"Because of Pandora!" Wyatt exclaimed.

"One of your cousins is running around after a forced charge that is constantly in trouble." Leo continued.

"Your younger sister is too occupied with her social life to realize the danger your all in," Piper inserted. "And your older brother is avoiding his magical responsibilities…"

"I am, I mean he is not." Wyatt stated defensively.

"With the rising source, you kids can't live your own separate lives. You have to start acting like a team…" Leo urged.

"Like the charmed ones…" Wyatt whispered.

"Exactly." Piper nodded.

"The charmed ones were usually preoccupied with their own lives," Wyatt spat back.

"Christopher Perry, you watch your tone." Piper clicked her heel decisively as she stood up.

"And that's usually when things went terribly wrong. You, of all people, should know that." Leo frowned. Wyatt shifted his weight again, staring down at his hands.

"If you won't act like an adult, magically leashed to me." Piper pressed another button on her phone as she shouted at the ceiling.

"Paige!" She called.

"Mom, you can't be serious! You haven't done that to any of us, since that stupid zoo trip…" Wyatt started.

"When you wandered into the lion's habitat?" Leo asked pointedly.

"I was four!" Wyatt reproached, remembering how mad he had been at Chris when the courageous toddler had decided to prove he was braver than Wyatt.

"Maybe that is a bit unreasonable Piper," Leo was frowning at his son, suspiciously while he tried to deter his wife. Phoebe and Paige appeared in the kitchen.

"Chris, baby why can't you behave?" Phoebe hurried back over to Chris.

"Really, isn't he a little old for us to still be binding his powers?" Paige snatched up a scone from the kitchen counter.

"We bound his powers just six months ago before he turned 19…" Piper defended.

"Oh yeah, that nasty conjuring a prom date business of yours. Not your finest moment…" Paige popped her lips.

"Mom, please? There's a rising source? This is a terrible idea…" Wyatt tried to defend himself.

"Piper, I don't think this is a good idea either." Phoebe nodded.

"A few days without his powers, will keep him out of trouble while we find Penelope and Patricia and get rid of these nigt-mares. I do not need to be constantly worried that he's out getting himself killed, unless you are ready to tell me what it is you've been doing in the underworld?" Piper crossed her arms and stared at him. Wyatt opened and closed his mouth, the things he was going to do to Chris.

"Stubborn, just like his mother." Phoebe petted Chris lovingly.

"Coddling him, really helpful Phoebe." Leo shook his head.

"All right, I have my own miscreants to get back to…" Paige snapped her fingers.  
Leo watched as Chris, uncharacteristically sat awaiting his punishment to be doled out.

Henry popped carrying two mugs of tea down the hallway, towards his children's rooms. He popped into HJ's room first, quietly entering noticing his son sitting at his computer reading on Pandora's box.

"Researching your charge then?" Henry asked as he placed the mug on the desk.

"The internet, what witches before did without it…" HJ shook his head slightly.

"Read books, I suppose." Henry shrugged at his son.

"Yeah, well that might end up being what I do, there isn't anything aside from myths and Wiccan theories on here." HJ sighed disappointed.

"You don't think that you should be more concerned with the rising source than with Amelle?' Henry commented to his son.

"Or maybe about my missing sister and cousin," HJ nodded distractedly starring off. "Unless, they are all connected…"

"Yeah, your mother has been thinking that for a few days now. Has Chris shared any of his theories?" Henry asked cautiously. The cousins were all rather protective of each other, especially of Chris. The younger cousins, HJ and Patience especially, trusted Chris' every thought and action almost blindly.

"He has been disappearing more lately." HJ shook his head. At last his hazel eyes settled back at the tea and frowned. "Tea?"

"Your mother and Piper insist that all of you are to drink this before bed and put up one of these," Henry dug out a small dream catcher from his pocket.

"For the nightmares?" HJ guessed. Henry stood up and patted his son on the shoulder.

"We can still keep you safe from some things." Henry whispered as he stepped out of the room. HJ waited to hear his father enter his sister's room before he tilted his head up opening his window and with a flick of his fingers sent the contents of the mug flying out into the night. Before kicking off his shoes, he threw the little dream catcher into a drawer of his desk without a thought.

Patience was crying at her desk, thoughtlessly drawing little hearts all over a notepad on her desk. The girl could not remember why she was so sad, but she couldn't control the emotion. So much were her emotions raging that the witch was floating, effortlessly midair. Also items were freezing around her uncontrollably, her digital clock was almost an hour behind from the constant stops.

Suddenly writing appeared on the notepad, not in her handwriting.

_What are you crying about did that boy dump you again? _

Patience didn't notice the writing instead she became occupied with practically flying around her room. She wasn't controlling her magic, anymore than usual.

"Chris would be upset with you." Cole's familiar voice chastised suddenly.

"Prince!" Patience clapped, forgetting her tears and suddenly dropping from the air onto her own bed. Cole hadn't materialized, an ability that expended far more energy than the lost soul wanted to expend. He had merely forced his voice to be heard, which on occasion he did to interact with his favorite Halliwell cousins.

"You've been crying for hours…" Cole commented.

"Yes, yes I suppose I have…." Patience frowned, as she pushed her shoulders into her pillows. There was a knock at the door softly before Phoebe walked into her daughter's room carrying a steaming mug and a small dream catcher.

"Drink this before you go to bed and we'll just put this up right here." Phoebe set down the mug and tacked up the dream catcher above the bed.

"I didn't realize you were being tormented by nigt-mares?" Cole sounded alarmed.

"You okay baby?" Phoebe frowned down at the girl, worrying shadowing her features.

"Just tired, I think." Patience shrugged, still confused about her intense sadness.

"Right tired, will this should help you sleep." Phoebe pushed the mug at Patience and kissed the girl's forehead goodnight before leaving.

"Prince?" Patience yawned as the tears started again.

"You know my name is Cole," Cole started.

"Yes, yes. Might you read me to sleep, like you do sometimes when I'm sad?" Patience wiggled under her blankets.

"Try to control your emotions," He sighed before starting to recite, not read one of the many stories he had memorized in the last two decades.

"Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona, where we lay our scene…" Cole's voice started strong, though both spirit and witch knew his strength would fade before the end of act one.

"I love this one, because of…" She blinked, trying to concentrate on something just out of her reach.

Chris stood in the middle of dance room, feeling ridiculous holding a plastic sword. Bianca was sporting a pair of shorts that were almost distracting enough for Chris to forget about the absurdity of the situation.

"Bianca, you can't possibly be serious about this toy sword fighting?" Chris sighed. Bianca didn't even turn around to look at him, as she ran her fingers through her hair before tying it into a messy bun. Before Chris could ask again though the girl spun around, beautifully graceful holding another toy sword. She didn't hold it as a toy in her hands it appeared to be the real flesh tearing and fighting weapon. It did help that the witch was charging intensely at Chris. Wyatt's body reacted far before Chris could even have a thought, as his hands grasped the hilt of the sword and he protected his torso from the oncoming attack. The plastic clashed louder than Chris thought was even possible of plastic. The sword became heavier at the first contact with the second sword and Chris pushed from his shoulders, causing the two swords to roll around each other in a circular motion.

"These are some toy swords," Chris commented.

"You act like we've never enchanted toy swords before," Bianca rolled her eyes as she ducked around Wyatt and pulled her sword away from his. Wyatt's body again reacted before Chris could and he ducked and swung the sword at Bianca's feet as the witch aimed for his missing head.

"Good, you're thinking about the weapon more." Bianca praised as she started swinging the sword at the good looking blond.

"You're going to lose your balance soon if you carry all the weight on your right side," Bianca managed to smack Wyatt's torso on the right with the side of the blade.

"Damn it Bianca, that hurt." Chris whined.

"Yes, swords hurt. Stupid boy." Bianca rolled her eyes. "I can't believe in all the years you've been alive that your parents didn't enroll you in fencing! You're the master of Excalibur!" Bianca lifted the sword above her head to strike down at Wyatt, but Chris caught on. With a powerful swing Chris sent Bianca's sword flying across the room.

"You might be ready to pull out that fancy play toy for real then," Bianca nodded respectfully. Chris huffed as he dropped his sword to his side. Bianca snapped her fingers and instantly had a tiny dagger that Chris recognized from his first meeting with the witch. Bianca was at his throat in moments, and the metal was cold against his throat.

"What the hell?" Chris demanded.

"You shouldn't let your guard down." Bianca whispered. Chris closed his eyes he like Wyatt had never bothered with combat training, as their powers had always been enough before. A vision danced on his closed eyelids, of Bianca kissing him and not Wyatt. Chris reacted on impulse and planted his lips onto Bianca.

Wyatt wasn't even trying to be discreet about his rummaging in Chris' desk. He was angry at the way he felt powerless, at the betrayal he felt Chris had thrown at him. Wyatt was not use to being left in the dark, at being powerless and of being guilt into contrition for something he didn't do. He was done playing these games with his brother, done at not having his way. He forcefully pulled out drawers and let them crash onto the ground in frustration that he couldn't just snap his fingers and find what he wanted.

"Did you forget where you put something?" Pale white arms started to wrap around Chris shoulders. Wyatt jumped and pushed the arms back forcefully.

"Jumpy and angry that mommy took your powers away again?" Verity sniffled from her dejected spot on the bed.

"Miss Vanguard?" Wyatt frowned at her as he shook his head. Was there no protection to Chris room at all, he had people appear and disappear like flipping a light switch. It was no wonder that the young man was so neurotic.

"Miss Vanguard? Really? You stand me up twice now Christopher Halliwell, and now you're being formal with me?" Verity crossed her arms and pouted.

"Stood you up…" Wyatt tried to remember from earlier, his brother was dating the oracle.

"Yes, now you promised to introduce me…" Verity stood up and started to walk towards the door. Wyatt jumped to the door and blocked it with his brother's body, the last thing he needed while in his brother's body tonight was his mother finding this Oracle in her house.

"Not now, it's late." Wyatt shook his head urgently.

"But you promised," Verity shot her hand out to grab the doorknob. Wyatt bent down and quickly picked the girl up in a prince like motion. Wyatt held the girl to his brother's body, feeling the warm familiarity.

"Kiss her, his body wants to…" The voice taunted in his head. Wyatt placed the Oracle on the bed and stopped worrying about controlling his emotions, without powers it didn't matter. As the young man was kissing the neck of the Oracle on his bed, someone knocked.

"Go away," Wyatt snapped.

"Chris," Melinda whined.

"Not now." Wyatt growled as Verity started kissing Chris arms.

"I'm going to get mom," Melinda warned. Wyatt muttered a profanity under his breath as he struggled to push himself away from the exotic creature on the bed.

"Hold on," Wyatt pressed his finger onto her lips. He shuffled over to the door and opened it only a crack.

"What do you want?" He demanded of his younger sister.

"Mom wanted you to have this tea for the mares. And I wanted to check that you were all right? It's not my fault you're a stubborn ass pig," Melinda spat him.

"Stop being a brat," Wyatt took the mug from her though he had not intention of drinking the tea. Wyatt started closing the door again, but Melinda shot out her hand.

"Chris," Melinda squinted her eyes at her brother suspiciously.

"What?" Wyatt demanded.

"Who was my first kiss?" She asked rather suddenly, as if she had just made the decision to say the question aloud.

"I don't know, Javin…" Wyatt stared at her confused.

"No, you remember it was Michael…" Melinda nodded.

"Michael, who?" Wyatt whispered, thinking.

"Michael, you know Wyatt's best friend in the fourth grade. You promised never to tell him," Melinda watched her brother's face carefully.

"You made out with Michael Canon!" Wyatt demanded, forgetting himself.

"So you're not Chris," Melinda nodded as Wyatt furious, slammed his door.


	11. Don't Know What It's Like

**Don't Know What It's Like**

_Welcome To My Life, Simple Plan _

**October 15, 1992 **

A normal bell shrieked through the intercom system and Penelope smiled as she wandered out into the packed hallway for the fourth time that day. It had been months since the middle cupitch had heard a normal bell, at Magic School periods ended with the sounds of pixie bells. She wandered into the crowded hallway, slipping easily without thought around the other high school students. She followed the beats of the familiar heartbeat of her mother, curious to see the mighty levelheaded Phoebe as the miscreant teenager.

Penelope was even able to ignore all the raging emotions around her and control her powers, because of her focus on the one heartbeat she cared about. She could feel the intense apathy from her mother about almost everything, except the lust that tasted so much like love it gave Penelope a headache. She blindly followed her magical senses until she at the door of the administration office. A window cut out of the door allowed her to glance inside, spotting her mother in a the same black leather jacket from the night before and a red dress that was something riskier than even Patience would ever wear. Penelope automatically reached down to grab her cell phone, to take a picture of her mother's outfit to share it with Patience, as the younger sister was sure that it might help Patience in one of her many arguments over outfits with their mother. But her phone was not there, as cell phones were yet to exist in 1992.

"How do people talk to each other," Penelope grumbled in annoyance. As she looked back up, her magenta tinted eyes caught the brown eyes of Phoebe glaring resentfully. The anger of the gaze was overpowering for the young empath, causing her to choke a bit on the emotion itself. But as Penelope tried to blink to break the eye contact, she instead started seeing a vision of the past events that had lead to Phoebe sitting in the lap of a boy waiting for the principal. The visions were quick and powerfully ridden with emotion that unbalanced Penelope, until the eye contact broke because she fell onto the ground.

Two strong and rough hands caught her before she smacked into the cold floors. Pen was blinking rapidly, her eyes changing into a royal purple as she looked up to spot another oddly familiar face.

"You should be more careful kid," The boy said, helping her back up to her feet.

"Uncl… I mean, you're name is Henry?" Penelope stuttered, surprised. The young Henry squinted his eyes suspiciously at the brightly clad freshman in front of him.

"Yeah, but how would you know that…" He asked suddenly intrigued by her eyes.

"A friend," Penelope whispered and glanced down trying to hide her strange irises.

"Right. Be careful kid," Henry sighed and disappeared down the crowded hallway as fast as he had appeared. Penelope looked up and tried to follow his dark head, concentrating for a moment at trying to keep track of one family member's heartbeat while remembering the visions of her mother making out with a boy on a desk.

"Oh," Penelope gasped as a bell rang and she was left completely alone in front of the principal's office. Impulsively the teen took a step to the right out of the view of delinquents that included her mother and the office administrators and concentrated, hoping that desire would be enough to push her powers to transport her.

Just one period later, but across town at a different school Patricia was struggling to keep up at a distance with her mother. Paige was lounging underneath the football bleachers smoking with her friends from the day before. Tricia watched from the other side of the stadium, sitting high up and out of view. The calmer twin was dressed in a pair of high waist jeans and a turtleneck, something much more conservative than her previous day's outfit. She had a book bag at her feet and was supporting her chin on her palms resting her arms on her knees. The girl with skin that could twin her mother's, her soft light brown hair was caught against her chin and palms, framing her round face. Her hazel eyes were fixed with longing and a glimmer of hope, her mother had once had a normal life and seem none the worn for worry.

As Tricia sat entranced, as if she was watching her favorite television show, a dark figure appeared at one end of the stadium. Tricia's eyes wandered away from her mother's shaking hand as she noticed the figure creeping along, a faint trail of dust trailing behind their dark cloak. A warning shook in Patricia, a feeling of danger that rose in her throat and made her clutch to the bench until her knuckles were white. Her magic reacted to her panic striking fear and the young witch orb through the bench, slowly rematerializing in the shadows underneath the bleachers. But as Tricia watch the slow progress of the dark figure, she realized that the demon wasn't here for her.

"Mom," Patricia panicked again and before thinking threw out her hands. A string of ice flew towards the demon and the frost started to wrap itself around the cloaked hunched figure. The hood turned in the direction of the ice and two white glowing specks caught sight of Tricia in her hiding spot. A fear washed over Patricia, enough to spark her to orb again away from the evil. As she orbed, the demon recognized the white lighter power and vanished. When Tricia rematerialized, inside one of the bathroom stalls of the track facilities she clutched to the wall as she puked.

Someone either knew she was here, or worse was after her mother. A demon was after her mother, after her powerless, defenseless freshman mother. Or worse, the demon was here for her, come from the future to kill her in the past. Beads of sweat started to form on her forehead, as she stood shaking.

"You can do this," Patricia whispered to herself. But she shook her head as she stepped out to the sinks and started running water.

"This is what Wyatt and Chris do, this is what Patience and Henry research. This is what Pandora and Melinda dreamed of doing. But me, this is some cruel cosmos joke!" Patricia was muttering. She pushed her palms into her face and aggressively took out her annoyance on her face. With a deep breathe, Patricia walked back out onto the track and checked to ensure that her mother was still underneath the bleachers.

Paige was laughing at some joke as she threw down a cigarette bud onto the ground. Patricia controlled her need to demand her mother pick up the litter, as she jumped up to the top of the bleachers where her book bag still sat.

Penelope appeared outside an unfamiliar apartment building somewhere in North Beach. She frowned, the young cupid she had actually been decisive and emotional enough to make her magic work like she wanted.

"How do Chris and Wyatt make this work all the time, stupid perfect older cousins make it look so easy." She grumbled to herself as she cast cautious glances in either direction on the busy street. She didn't see anyone familiar but she paused closing her eyes, taking in deep breathes as she leaned against the wall. It had been almost two years since Penelope had focused on her own cupid powers enough to have any dexterity over them. But with every intake of the crisp fall air of the city, focused her mind and hearing clearly on several familiar heartbeats. She pressed her fingers into her temples, a habit that she picked up from her aunt Paige, as she tried to identify the heartbeats.

Heartbeats are like voices, each with their own personality. Usually a cupid didn't need to focus on the heartbeats to identity, because the magical creatures functioned much like white lighters responding to their "charges." But Penelope, like her sisters and most of her cousins, was a half-breed and her powers worked differently. Because Penelope could "hear" or rather "sense" loved ones (familiar) heartbeats whenever they were close, she had learned at a young age to recognize each beat. She was fast at identifying her sisters, or her cousins because she had been so close to them for so much of her life but everyone else caused her trouble. One of the closer heartbeats was familiar, but there was something different about it, something missing. The most distant heartbeat was also familiar, familiar but distantly protected somehow.

"Prue, Grams called again. Yes about Phoebe," Piper was huffing as she carried two large bags of groceries. Penelope bent down pretending to tie her shoe, hiding herself behind her long braided hair. She was frowning at not recognizing her aunt's heartbeat earlier, though now she knew that the other slightly familial heartbeat was Prue's. Piper shuffled into her apartment building but instead of the heartbeats getting softer, the unidentified one began getting louder.

Snapping her head up from her crouched position, Penelope spotted the familiar plaid shirt on a much younger version of her uncle Leo.

"Three familiar heartbeats and not one is the one I was looking for, maybe if I ever get back to the future I should have dad teach me how this actually works…" Penelope thought to herself.

"Penelope?" Patricia whispered from a cracked window. Penelope jumped and let out a squeak, before turning to glare at her cousin. The cupitch was furious, though it was impossible to separate if she was angrier at her own careless or at her cousin's.

"If I could blow things up, I would have killed you…" Penelope snapped harshly.

"Good thing you can't then, besides watch." Patricia tapped her fingers against Penelope's shoulder.

_Teenage Paige was running down a dark alley in the late hours of the night. She was terrified, dirt covered her knees and elbows and there were tears in her tank top. Her jacket was missing and something dark and overwhelming was following her and gaining. A figure that was more shadow than physical presence was hunched over, following Paige. A fragmented vision revealed sharp razor teeth sinking into the pale skin of the crying teenager. So much blood pooled onto the black ground… _

"We have to do something, get Grams immediately…." Patricia was panicking before Penelope even had a moment to process the images that had shattered her thoughts of getting home.

"We can't." Penelope hissed finally responding to Tricia.

"What? What do you mean we can't?" Tricia screeched. There was a movement somewhere within the apartment that Patricia was still standing in.

"We have to move." Penelope yelped. The urgency of her voice was enough to make Tricia orb and Penelope turned to run. Not more than a block away from her aunts' apartment, a hand shot out and grabbed Penelope.

"Crickey, you are trying to scare me to death today." Penelope struggled out of Patricia's grip.

"We have to go tell Grams about mom, you saw something is going to kill her."

"We can't tell Grams, we can't. And this isn't possible…" Penelope muttered.

"Why the hell can't we tell Grams? My mom is in trouble, my powerless, reckless and problem child of a mother is being stalked by some kind of demon!" Patricia started pacing. Penelope rubbed her palm against her forehead before throwing out her hands and stopping her cousin.

"Tricia, listen to me. This isn't possible, no one knows about your mom. No one because it was dangerous knew about the fourth charmed one." Penelope whispered the last part. "Even the source doesn't discover your mom until the moment Prue died and Paige's powers started working."

Patricia stood quietly taking in the story, a story she knew. Paige's voice whispered in her head, a memory of a light blue nursery and her sister and herself sitting in her mother's lap.

"The first time my powers worked," Tricia whispered suddenly.

"What?" Penelope stared at her cousin. It was rare that Patricia spoke about being a witch these days, even less probable that she acknowledge her birthright.

"The first time, Pandora and I were three and mom took us up into her lap and told us the story about the first time her powers worked." Tricia explained.

"Yeah, when my mom and Aunt Piper explained to her about their powers in the church where Grandma Patty and Sam left her…" Tricia interrupted her cousin though.

"No, that's not the first time. Actually mom suspects that she used her powers a few times without noticing while growing up but the first time she knows is when she saved herself from the car accident that killed Grandma and Grandpa." Tricia explained.

"I knew that…" Penelope nodded. "But,"

"Magic was part of who she was, she was born a witch lighter. She has her powers now. She just doesn't know it, because Grams never bound hers." Tricia explained. Penelope waved her hands impatiently, trying to mover her cousin's points along before she interjected again.

"If she has powers, which she does, can't she be detected? More easily by demons than by a family who doesn't acknowledge her?" Tricia finally huffed angry that her mother was in danger because of the lack of family support.

"Sam knows. Sam must have watched over Aunt Paige. She's his daughter." Penelope licked her lips carefully.

"Didn't Sam stop being a white lighter when Patty died?" Patricia shook her head.

"I don't know, I haven't had time to research that…" Penelope sighed.

"We have to tell Grams." Tricia declared again.

"Tricia, we can't." Pen was growing weary and panicky. The familiar plaid shirt of Leo walked by the alley that the girls were standing in and Tricia jumped.

"Uncle Leo!" She squealed excited to see an adult, a person that might be able to take care of the magical disaster that was brewing.

The familiar blue eyes, so much younger, snapped around to stare at the teenage girls. Penelope's heartbeat was rapid and there was no other time in her young life that she had wanted her older sister's active power more. A twitch and hope, Pen threw up her hands and snapped causing Leo to freeze mid-step.

"How did you do that?" Tricia screamed.

"I don't know," Penelope was losing color to her cheeks. "I don't have that power…"

"I can't set things on fire, but I did last week." Tricia frowned.

"Look, I don't know how long he's going to stay frozen. We can't tell him about Aunt Paige, we can't. Hold on, listen to me." Penelope snapped her fingers leaving Tricia with her mouth open. "We can't mess with the past, it might completely alter the future. Uncle Leo can't know about Aunt Paige until the moment he needs it, it could change how the charmed ones are reconstructed. It can change everything, from how they defeated the source or the ultimate power or us even being born, do you understand?"

"Maybe he can help us without knowing who she is?" Tricia questioned carefully.

"We must be careful." Penelope nodded, still trying to control her own heartbeat as Leo animated back into life.

"Who are you?" Leo questioned quietly as he finished walking into the alley.

"I'm Helen and this is my friend Callista," Tricia pointed at Pen.

"Why do you know my name?" Leo asked, ignoring the fact that the girl had called him uncle.

"You're a white lighter, we met you once at a Wiccan function." Pen lied hoping that the story might almost be true.

"A Wiccan function?" Leo's eyebrow went up, a facial expression both cousins recognize from their uncle's many interactions with Chris.

"Yes, the magic be in at Patty Halliwell's manor in 1967." Penelope spit out.

"1967? You don't look older than 14." Leo frowned.

"We have a time traveling problem, you can say." Tricia shrugged.

"What year are you from?" Leo asked suspiciously.

"Rather not delve into that, we are actually currently seeking help from Penny herself. Though she's older than we last meet her," Penelope nodded.

"What are you doing here?" Leo asked now, cautiously glancing towards the apartment where Prue and Piper sat.

"Got a bit lost, would you mind orbbing us to the manor?" Tricia batted her eyes slightly. Leo was hesitant but he could sense the goodness in the girls and nodded.

"Maybe I can help with your time travel problem?" He questioned.

"We'll let you know, magic works in the way it does for a reason right?" Pen smiled brightly. Leo nodded slowly, recognizing his own phrase from the girl before waving his hand over them.

The girls appeared in the conservatory of the empty Manor. Penelope was practically hyperventilating, while Tricia wandered straight into the kitchen.

"Where are you going?" Penelope snapped. Tricia didn't respond but the sounds of cupboards opening and glass clanking. Pen stumbled into the kitchen, tripping over the ancient rug of the dinning room that didn't exist in her own time.

"Where are all the potion ingredients?" Tricia demanded turning to glare at Pen, as if the missing items were the younger girl's fault.

"It's 1992 Tricia, magic in the manor is disguised and hidden." Penelope rolled her eyes.

"What does that mean?" Tricia settled her hands over her hips.

"It means that if there is any kind of stock potion materials they are in Gram's room or in the attic…" Penelope explained.

"I don't have time to go on a scavenger hunt. Mom is out of class in four minutes, I am going to follow her until she gets home. Just in case she's attacked…" Tricia orbed out of the kitchen without another thought or further explanation.

"This must be what Wyatt feels like all the time," Penelope stared at the empty place where her cousin had just stood. After seconds of silence, Penelope opened the familiar drawer underneath the old telephone. She grabbed a tiny bottle of aspirin and wandered in a daze around the kitchen to get a glass of water.

"All I wanted to do was go home, I don't chase demons." She was squeaking as she sat down at the table. "Now I might be responsible for my entire future…"

"Someone is being overdramatic." A new only slightly familiar voice commented.

Penelope screamed and ducked underneath the table, cursing her own pity party distracting her from noticing yet another person sneaking up on her.

"Jumpy little thing you are, come on out. I won't hurt you," The much younger face of Sam Wilder popped up under the table.

"Sam?" Penelope blinked repeatedly at the man. She hadn't seen anyone orb, she hadn't sensed anyone orb or the familiar heartbeat.

"Strange eye color kid, peculiar." Sam frowned as he pulled the girl out from under the table. "What kind of magical creature are you?"

"I'm a cup… I'm a witch." Penelope caught her own mistake before divulging to much information.

"A cup witch?" Sam laughed. Penelope took a deep breath and nodded carefully.

"A witch, sorry. I was caught off guard, I didn't sense you orb." Pen accused.

"That's because I can't orb, I clipped my wings in 1978." Sam frowned.

"When grandma Patty died…" Penelope whispered.

"Grandma Patty?" Sam caught the title of his beloved witch.

"Um… yeah," Penelope bit her lower lip. How did Chris keep his own identity secret for months before her own mother discovered him was beyond her. Sam stepped down to stare at the teen carefully.

"A daughter of Phoebe then?" Sam asked suddenly. Penelope paled but nodded at the correct guess.

"What are you doing here?" Penelope spat out suddenly.

"I may not be a white lighter but sometimes I still hear things and it seems that the Werewolf has arrived in town and I'm worried about a certain young witch…" Sam stated carefully.

"Paige." Penelope nodded.

"You know about Paige in the future?" Sam frowned.

"Let's not talk about the future, you know future consequences. Werewolf?" Penelope smiled brightly and nervously.

"Yes, a wolf creature that exists to prey upon magical half-breeds." Sam nodded.

"Magical half-breeds?" Penelope clutched the dining room table behind her.

"Yes, I think he can smell Paige. So I came to ask Penny to maybe cast some enchantments to protect her or maybe find an active witch to take care of her. It's a tricky business though because Paige can't know and well Penny can't directly help." Sam explained taking a seat.

"Why?" Penelope demanded.

"No one can know about Paige, you haven't told anyone?" Sam asked.

"No sir," Pen shook her head.

"If Penny helps this girl who is not a witch, one of the Elders might grow suspicious." Sam stated. "Too bad that the girls don't have their powers, they could protect her."

"We can protect her." Penelope stated resolutely.

"We? And no offense kid, but you just hid under a table when a mortal walked into the kitchen."

"I'm stronger than I look. And we is my cousin and I," Penelope nodded.

"Another kid from the future? Whose kid is she?" Sam asked. Penelope shifted her weight uncomfortably under Sam's gaze. The silence told the former white lighter everything he needed to know.

"She's Paige's daughter?" Sam nodded. "And you're staying with Penny, does she know?"

"No, we lied." Penelope said quickly. "You can't tell her, I shouldn't have told you. It's dangerous."

"You're here to keep Paige safe?" Sam asked.

"I don't know, I think that might be it. Or we brought the evil to her," The young witch muttered the last part inaudibly.

"Where is the other girl now?" Sam studied the room trying to spot his own granddaughter.

"Following Paige home, to make sure she stays safe." Penelope explained.

"Yes, well trained little witches then?" Sam laughed.

"You could say that," Penelope shrugged.

"And you think you can protect her?" Sam asked seriously.

"I don't know," Penelope cried.

"I'll talk to Penny still, maybe you can offer to help to her." Sam suggested. Penelope stared at Sam, carefully studying his facial expressions and listening to his heartbeat.

"She won't take us seriously?" Penelope guessed.

"You're a baby to Penny Halliwell," Sam smiled.

"You think I'm a baby too…" Penelope pouted.

"What are you like 12?" Sam asked.

"I'm 14!"

"And you've fought how many demons?" Sam asked.

"Several," Penelope snapped back.

"Alone?" Sam prompted.

"Well…" Pen stuttered.

"Demons are not playmates, they are serious killers." Sam nodded sadly. "Halliwell witches like to think they are immortal."

"Sometimes we are," Penelope whispered back, but Sam was lost in thought.

**October 15, 2023 **

It was nearing midnight as the grandfather clock of the manor struck a quarter till. Wyatt was crouched on the top step of the third floor trying to use his brother's driver's license to unlock the door.

"The book of shadows is as much mine as yours mom," Wyatt grumbled annoyed as slipped and hit his head against the doorknob.

"Chris!" Wyatt hissed at the dark night. It was the hundredth time that the Wyatt had tried to contact his brother, he had done everything from texts to calls to shouting. Chris was completely ignoring him. Wyatt suspected that the younger brother had muted him. Wyatt struggled to push the door open again and finally attempted to orb into the attic.

His white orbs were redirected into Chris' room, where Piper sat calmly in an old rocking chair.

"Peanut, after all these years you should know that I know you well enough to seal the attic from you." Piper stood up to cup her hand under Chris' chin.

"Mom this is ridiculous, I'm a grown man." Wyatt crossed his arms and glared down at his mother.

"Who is acting like a naughty two year old with his hand caught in a cookie jar." Piper smiled at him, licking her thumb carefully as she wiped off a part of his chin.

"Mom," Wyatt pulled away. "You're being unreasonable."

"You're being unreasonable. I have seen this behavior from you once before, this secretive, demonic hunting, lone warrior thing. And you died that time, in your father's arms. I will not allow that to happen again, you have a family still completely here…" Piper pressed her index finger into Chris nose.

"Mom," Wyatt started.

"I am your mother, and I will protect you. Don't you dare tell me that you are old enough to take care of yourself!" Piper shook her head.

"Mom, don't you think you're overreacting just a bit?" Wyatt sat down on his bed resigned.

"You think I haven't noticed all the nights you've left after dark, all the mornings that you come down looking worn out. How about all those bruises?" In a quick movement Piper lifted the shirt covering Chris' body torso to reveal a series of bruises at different degrees of healing.

"You think I don't know that you haven't been going to classes, or that you jump at the slightest noise. Don't even get me started on your moods, I'm surprised they haven't started to affect your powers." Piper was pulling down the covers of the young man's bed.

"Mom, I didn't mean to worry you." Wyatt forced one of his brother's charming smiles onto his face.

"No, of course not. You never do, into bed with you." Piper nodded into the ready bed.

"Mom, I can put myself to bed." Wyatt shook his head at his mother.

"I want you in bed, and I want you to stay in bed otherwise I can't sleep. You understand me? I can feel when you move, so try not to sneak out?" Piper ran her hand through her son's hair. She kissed him on the top of his head before walking out of the room.

"Damn it Chris," Wyatt hissed yet again at the empty room.

The clock struck midnight loudly and most of the family was fast asleep, so Wyatt settled into a slumber.

_HJ sat in the middle of all white room, with Amelle settled in his arms. Blood was spilling rapidly onto the floor, drenching into HJ's clothing. _

_ "Don't die," HJ cried at the paling face in his arms. Amelle snuggled into Henry's chest weakly as she smiled. _

_ "Everybody dies." She whispered. _

_ "But I was suppose to protect you," HJ heaved a sob. _

_ "Protect the box, the next guardian won't be born for another 10 years. It could be disastrous if Hope died before there was a new guardian." Amelle coughed. _

_ The walls of the white room trembled, flickered almost. HJ stared at the empty room, unable to move from his spot with the dead girl until the scene changed. _

_ Amelle was alive again but was running next to HJ, through a series of dark damper tunnels. Arrows were flying through the air and HJ jumped over one of his twin sister's dead bodies. _

_ Pandora floated outside of the tunnels, watching from a distance the nightmare that was plaguing her brother. She tapped at an invisible wall on front of her. The fiery red head squirmed for a second before dissolving into a seam of the dream. _

_ Teenagers in prom attire were dancing around a large ballroom. Balloon arcs and glitter signage cluttered the dreamscape, as Pandora successfully stepped in to a new dream. A platform stage where the DJ sat had one microphone stand and Principal Winch was standing behind it with an envelope. _

_ "Ahem," Principal Winch tapped at the microphone as the music died. "This year's prom queen has been called beautiful, smart and funny. She is a model student and active participant of our school community. Please welcome the class of 2025's Prom Queen Melinda Halliwell." _

_ Pandora snorted in the silence of the dream and everything shattered. Dora was left floating in a white space just arms length from Melinda. _

_ "DORA!" Melinda screeched. "Are you really here?" _

_ "Yeah," Dora nodded as she concentrated on creating a surrounding for them. _

_ "After you mess up and sent your sister and Pen into the past? Get out of my dream." Melinda flung herself at her cousin. But Dora achieved constructing a space just at the right moment and Melinda tumbled into the potion ingredient spells near the book of shadows. _

_ "Why are we in the attic?" Melinda demanded from the floor. _

_ "Its easy for me to construct the attic." Dora shrugged. _

_ "Why are you in my dream, I'm not saying a spell with you." Melinda crossed her arms angrily. The youngest of Piper's children was resentful at her cousin for ruining the only good dream she had experienced in days. _

_ "I tried to get into HJ's first, but I was stuck on the outside of it." Dora explained. _

_ "Stuck on the outside?" Melinda asked curiously. _

_ "Yeah, like being on the outside of a fish tank." Dora nodded as she started pacing the room. _

_ "And you're here because?" Melinda jumped up and started running her fingers over the objects of the dream attic. _

_ "I didn't know if I could get into your dream. I was testing my powers, seeing if I could travel between all of my family members." Dora explained. _

_ "But why?" Melinda demanded again. _

_ "You are so dense sometimes Melinda, just because your brothers do everything for you…" Dora started. Melinda picked up a book and chucked it at her cousin with malicious force. _

_ "You crashed my dream to insult me?" Melinda spat. _

_ "I crashed your dream to learn my powers." Dora sighed. _

_ "I don't think this is a good idea," Melinda started shaking her head. _

_ "The source is rising and there is nothing we can do about it, aside from preparing ourselves. We're on attack from every front, we have to be able to take care of ourselves alone." Dora commented. The dreamscape started to dissolve again and the high school prom took form again. _

_ "Dora?" Melinda called out into the crowd of her own dream friends. Pandora had disappeared from the scene. Melinda stood on the stage in a sequence dress of silver, as Principal Winch placed a crown on her head the fire alarm started going off… _

**October 16, 2023 **

"Piper, I'm starting to freak out about Penelope being stuck in the past. Every time we have ever time traveled we come back in the same instant we left, no matter the time passed in the past." Phoebe was mumbling through her arms, as she rested her head against the kitchen counter.

"Well Phoebe, you know as well as I do that magic works in mysterious ways." Piper sighed as she finished frosting the last of the pink roses on a chocolate cake.

"But if they landed in 1992, why wouldn't they ask Grams to help them…?" Phoebe groaned.

"Maybe they think it's dangerous to reveal themselves to Penny." Leo commented from behind his paper.

"What if its evil magic that transported them there? We are no closer to vanquishing these nightmares, or knowing where the source is, or figuring out how to stop the rising source. And my middle child and one of my nieces is stuck in the year that hadn't figured out it wasn't still in the 80s…" Phoebe whined.

"And what do you want to do about all this?" Piper clicked her tongue in annoyance.

"The only person to time travel to a specific time and stay there for a while is sleeping upstairs…" Phoebe lifted her head slowly to stare at her sister.

"Absolutely not." It wasn't Piper who so quickly refused the idea, but Leo who had settled his paper down onto the table and was shaking his head.

"Leo, I'm surprised aren't you the one that's always saying I coddle the boy to much?" Piper smiled at her husband.

"We should think about this a second though, Chris may for whatever reason be better at time travel and have either of you considered that someone may have to go back and find the girls?" Phoebe held up her arms and waved them about.

"Chris died the last time he time traveled. Actually he almost died several times." Leo shook his head.

"And if you recall Miss Phoebe, he almost made himself disappear. My neurotic careful boy, was like a one man wrecking crew in the past." Piper nodded.

"I think you both forget he wasn't really though. His methods were questionable, but he never truly attempted to disrupt the timeline and rarely did he share details about the future…" Phoebe almost whispered.

"You've noticed how similar he's been lately," Leo lifted his paper back up as he stated the fact.

"Yes, well…" Phoebe bit her lower lip. "I sense that has something to do with his genetic disposition to danger…"

"Look Phoebe, if the girls don't appear by tonight we will find a magically solution to bringing them home. Promise, we're the charmed ones and with all our powers I'm sure we can do a little hocus pocus to bring them home." Piper smiled at her sister as she pulled on an invisible rope at her waist forcefully.

"I'm coming!" A groggy and grumpy voice shouted back.

"You have five minutes before I make you come downstairs in whatever state you're in!" Piper shouted back at the ceiling.

"You don't think this is somehow hindering his development as an autonomous adult?" Phoebe wondered as she pulled out the cake container from one of the cabinets.

"Don't you start with your psychobabble," Piper snorted.

"Besides, you don't think Chris has enough independence in him for an entire army?" Leo smiled.

"No one ever could tame my nephew," Phoebe winked.

Down the coast, on a beach that basked in the endless summer of San Diego a pile of Wyatt's clothing sat tucked beneath a large rock. Bianca sat on the rock starring out into the vast ocean for the signs of a golden glint. As a wave crashed onto the shore, two arms appeared stroking against the current. Moments later, Wyatt was walking out of the sea foam carefully balancing a ball of water between his hands.

"You miss your goldfish, Halliwell?" Bianca kicked a bunched up shirt as the water receded back from the sand.

"Bianca, what are you doing here?" Chris frowned without looking up from the spinning orb of water in between his palms. Chris concentrated momentarily and a glass surface enclosed the water tightly. Bianca had skipped to be right next to the boy, as she studied the small snow globe.

"Is that mermaid hair?" Bianca asked surprised.

"Several mermaids' hair." Chris winked.

"So you went for a swim to hit on some half fish creatures that get distracted by the nearest shiny object?" Bianca stretched out her hand to touch the globe but with a snap of his fingers the object had disappeared.

"What are you doing here?" Chris asked defensively..

"Aren't we using magic more these days..." Bianca squinted her eyes carefully before she wiped a phone out from her back pocket. "...you left your phone on the floor of my place."

"Oh," Chris reacted quickly and bent down to kiss his brother's girlfriend as he expertly grabbed the phone. "Thanks."

"Mermaid hair is a strong magical item." Bianca stated off handed but Chris had the phone pressed to his ear and was fixated on listening to a message. Quickly, Chris shoved the phone back into Bianca's back pocket and swooped to grab his shirt now damp from the creeping waves.

"Want come to a birthday party?" Chris held out his arm for Bianca.

"I get to meet your family?" Bianca's eyes popped open.

"Why not?" He laughed as he orbed them away.

Ten fourth graders were giggling and chatting as they painted their designated pieces. Patience sat wielding two paintbrushes as she worked on painting each stone individually on her castle. HJ sat on the table next to his cousin engulfed in his own thoughts.

"Don't you think its weird that Chris cut his hair? He looks like a boyscout." HJ murmured.

Chris stood patiently stoic at his mother's side near the cake table. Coop and Leo stood at the opposite side of the room arranging the gifts. Phoebe and Paige weaved among the young children and helped with grabbing more paint or cleaning paint off of faces and clothing. Henry kept disappearing into the main studio, watching for late party-goers or early parents. Melinda and Pandora were painting a tea pot at the far side of the table that HJ sat on, whispering to each other.

"I think you're thinking about if Amelle would like you better with short hair." Patience giggled.

"You don't think he's acting weird?" HJ knocked his knee into the girl, causing her paint brush to escape into her already dry blue window.

"Henry!" Patience squeaked as she hit the boy in the knee angrily. At the impact, Patience gasped a bit.

"Oh you're so in love with that girl." Patience smiled. HJ shoved his cousin away from him. Phoebe snapped at the two teenagers warning them to behave.

"Stop that." HJ hissed. The dropped paint brushes were floating into the air magically and Patience had to use her hands to settle them back down.

"Oh she likes you too!" Patience clapped her hands excitedly.

"How do you know that?" HJ slipped down to be on the same bench as her.

"I don't know." Patience shrugged. "But its true. Oh! Let's surprise her with a date!" She smiled mischievously.

"No." HJ shook his head horrified by his cousin's glee. A strange series of emotions flickered on Patience face in a second of time before she started crying.

"What are you doing?" HJ shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Why don't you want me to help you?" Patience cried softly. HJ's eye were wide with surprise, Patience was the toughest out of his cousins the tomboy of the bunch that rarely cried. She had always spent more time with Wyatt, Chris and himself to be too much of a crier.

"Stop crying about it, yes of course I want your help." HJ surrendered. The water works ended as quickly as they had started and Patience smiled.

"Wonderful. There should be candles and flowers," She started painting again as she rattled off her list. HJ stared at her amazed, partially wondering if the water works had been a distraction device to cause him to cave.

"Don't you have Dervin to distract you?" HJ interrupted his cousin suddenly. A pair of empty, confused blue eyes stared at him and HJ sat confused once again at his cousin's eyes adopting their natural but never present color.

"What the hell is she doing here?" Piper's voice broke all concentration. The room was frozen in the same instance.

"Piper!" Paige and Phoebe reproached their oldest sister's haste action.

"You have three seconds before I blow you up," Piper stated pointedly at Bianca.

"Piper you can't blow her up." Leo warned his wife calmly.

"Um, Mrs. Halliwell..." Bianca stuttered. Chris, in Wyatt's towering body, immediately stepped in front of the scared girl.

"Mom, have you met Bianca before?" He asked innocently. Wyatt shot his brother murderous looks from behind Piper.

"Why are you protecting an assassin witch Wyatt?" Piper demanded.

"Dating her," Chris replied flippantly. Piper snapped her wrist and her oldest son blew up into tiny lights for a matter of seconds before reforming.

"PIPER!" Leo shouted.

"Wait until she finds out who Chris is dating," Coop whistled lowly.

"Who?" Piper spun around to stare at her younger son.

"Verity Vanguard." Wyatt spat relishing the moment to take revenge on his brother. The room came alive again with the birthday party for seconds before Patience jumped up and froze the scene again.

"The cake!" Patience shouted frantically. Paige orbed the falling cake back onto the table safely.  
"Aunt Piper, could you be mad later?" Primrose wrinkled her nose in disgust. "You are ruining my birthday party."

"Oh princess, of course." Piper smiled sweetly ignoring her sons immediately. The party began again and Leo weaved through the children and family members before he rested a hand on his oldest child's shoulder.

"You and I should have a word." Leo whispered.

"Maybe later?" Chris asked calmly. "After presents?"

"But..." Leo started.

"Please uncle Leo, I've missed Chris." Primrose was standing between Wyatt's towering body and her uncle's.

"You mean Wyatt," Bianca corrected. Leo bent down to stare at his youngest niece.

"No, he only..." Prim started before Wyatt's hand cover her mouth and pulled her into his side.

"Stop joking around Prim." He laughed nervously, knowing too well that his father had figured it out already.

"I'll tell you what Prim, Chris can stay as long as it takes me to convince your aunt Piper to let me take Wyatt. Understood?" Leo added the stern warning as he stood to face Chris in Wyatt's body.

"Dad," Wyatt's hand shot out.

"I won't tell her yet, but she's going to find out." Leo murmured before making his way towards his wife.

"How did you know?" Chris asked his youngest cousin.

"You smell besides, Wyatt doesn't have any patience." Primrose skipped back to her table of friends.

"Reckless little brother," Bianca whispered slowly. She slipped her hand under his chin and forced his face to be in her direct glare. Bianca's dark eyes searched the face of the young man she had known for the last year.

"I knew you were acting strange," Bianca nodded.

"I've acted exactly like Wyatt," Chris gritted his teeth.

"Maybe what you think Wyatt acts like, so close yet so different." Bianca cracked a sad knowing smile. "Your mother hates me."

"Mom has some residual resentment towards you." Chris shrugged apologetically. Bianca nodded thoughtful and Chris wondered if the woman in front of him had the memories of a past life haunting her. The entire room exploded into a chorus of happy birthday for Primrose and Chris ducked forward and lifted his youngest cousin into his brother's arms.

As the song ended, Piper nodded curtly at her husband. Leo and Wyatt in Chris' body moved towards the door frame where Bianca and Chris in Wyatt's body stood.

"Bianca, you can get yourself home I expect?" Leo asked the young witch.

"Yes sir," Bianca smiled smugly at Wyatt's body and winked at Chris' face. "Good luck there boys."

"Dad," Chris started but Leo shook his head.

"Car, let's go. We're heading home." Leo pushed his taller son's shoulder to force him out the door. Leo led his grown sons out to their own shared beat up Jeep in silence. Wyatt and Chris both jumped into the back seat and just as Leo started the car, the fight exploded.

"You cut my hair!" Chris shoved his brother.

"You ignored me all night!" Wyatt kicked back.

"You would have done the same thing!"

"I would never have let mom leash you to her for something I did!"

"You would for some demented belief that it would keep me safe!"

"I wouldn't need to keep you safe if you weren't so stupid!"

"Boys," Leo warned sternly staring into the rear view mirror to watch as Chris punched Wyatt ignoring their father completely.

"And you brought Bianca!" Wyatt tried to hook his brother's head into his arm finding it to be more difficult than it would be in his own body.

"You're dating Bianca, she tried to kill me!" Chris reversed his brother's own move and locked his head into his arm.

"VERITY VANGUARD, CHRISTOPHER?" Wyatt shouted struggling.

"That' ENOUGH." Leo slammed on the brakes and the boys pushed away from each other, crossing their arms and starring out their respective windows. It was silent for a few more seconds.

"Cut my hair." Chris mumbled.

"Brought Bianca," Wyatt spit back.

"I'm going to call your mother," Leo warned and then the car was silent until they reached the manor. As the jeep pulled up into the manor, Wyatt turned and glared with his brother's green eyes at the back of his own head.

"How did you know?" Wyatt demanded. After a lifetime of being Chris' brother, Wyatt understood that he had brought Bianca as retaliation.

"Mels," Chris waved Wyatt's phone as he stepped into the house.

"I'm going to kill her," Wyatt whispered.

"Would you boys care to explain how you switched bodies?" Leo turned on his sons, his own patience used up from the car ride.

"Dad, we've got this figured out." Chris started defending.

"Yes, I can see that. Running around ignoring each other and getting each other in trouble, acting like five year olds." Leo crossed his arms and stared disappointed at his sons.  
"Chris was ignoring me." Wyatt grumbled shifting his weight uncomfortably.

"Why didn't you tell us Wyatt? When you sat there being lectured for Chris," Leo demanded.

"I didn't think you would believe him," Wyatt responded.

"Because they never believe me," Chris snapped.

"And you Christopher, leaving your brother to take responsibility for your actions because you were too busy focusing on your own agenda." Leo glared at his older son.

"Dad, I just wanted to prove that I could do it myself..." Chris started to defended himself.

"I don't want to hear either o your excuses, I want to know what happened." Leo sighed turning his back on the young men and walking towards the kitchen. Chris looked uncomfortably and Wyatt swung his arm around his brother as he pushed him towards the kitchen. Leo had sat at the kitchen table and started to looking over his newspaper, carefully to not look pleased nor anxious that his sons had entered.

"When we went into the underworld a couple of days ago." Chris started jumping onto the counter.

"Something happened that switched us, because when we woke up at Magic School I was in this body and Chris was in mine." Wyatt sat near his father at the table.

"And both of you were busy being selfish to research what had happened at all? You know soul-switching is extremely volatile magic." Leo tapped at the table.

"I was not being selfish," Wyatt started.

"I totally was," Chris volunteered but refused to make eye contact with anyone in the room.

"Haven't you been obsessed with what Chris has been up to?" Leo asked his oldest softly. Wyatt clenched his jaw and nodded.

"So what do you think happened?" Leo asked Chris.

"We were fighting over a relic used in the Source crowning ceremony." Chris cast down his eyes, anticipating his father's disapproval.

"Boys, when your fighting puts you in danger..." Leo started wary of the conversation he felt his sons were far too old to still need.

"We know dad." The brothers whispered in unison.

"The Orb of Psyche, that's what Hector called it..." Chris stated.

"You were fighting over the Orb?" Leo asked in disbelief.

"Chris thought that if we destroyed it there might not be a source, and then the demons attacked us..." Wyatt explained.

"And then Wyatt wanted to give it back to the demons, even though we both know that it wouldn't have stopped the attack." Chris grumbled.

"The orb of Psyche has been used for centuries to permanently blend souls." Leo stared back and forth between his sons.

"Is that why I can sometimes feel Wyatt?" Chris asked surprised.

"And I do things that are totally Chris?" Wyatt asked.

"We have to get you out of each other's body, and you've wasted a day being childish..." Leo stood up immediately.

"Where are you going?" Wyatt asked.

"Magic School, come on Wy," Chris rolled his brother's blue eyes.

"You two have already proven how childish you truly are, if you can't do this without bickering I will find things for you to file at Magic School and call your mother and aunts to help solve this little mess you boys have gotten yourselves into." Leo stared at his sons carefully.

"Yes sir." The boys responded in unison before following Leo through a magic door that had appeared in the kitchen to magic school.

* * *

This Chapter was particular Wyatt & Chris heavy, not to worry plenty of things to come with Patience, HJ, Melinda and Dora while the boys are figuring out how to fix their little mishap. et me know what you think though, always fun to know that people are reading!


	12. When The World Treats You Too Fairly

**World Treats You Way too Fairly **

_All I Wanted, Paramore _

**October 18, 1992 **

The flickering images of a black and white Lucille Ball flashed on the small television on the dresser of Prue and Piper's old room. The dialogue of the episode was loud but not loud enough to wake the sleeping Penelope. The covers of the bed had been tossed and twisted indicating that the young cupid witch had not slept peacefully. Her face was set in a frown and her hands were clutched to the edges of her pillow, tiny beads of sweat on her forehead were glittering with the sunlight starting to stream into the room but still she slept.

Until a series of white lights crowded over the empty bed on the other side of the room, then Penelope shook with a shock that sent her tumbling onto the floor.

"Are you ok?" Tricia yawned.

"What time is it? Are you all right? Is Aunt Paige well?" Penelope gasped for air, gasped for a peace that she didn't remember anymore.

"Mom needs to just want to stay at home." Tricia complained as she pulled a colorful scrunchy out of her hair.

"If this is what it feels like to worry about us all night, I'm never sneaking out of the house. Or letting Patience do it either." Penelope rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

"I think I might actually try it when we get back to our time, give mom some of her own medicine. She makes it look so easy and with this orbbing power…" Tricia giggled a soft chuckle bordering on a cross between a yawn and a sob.

"She's still asleep?" Penelope asked as she started to pull some clothing from the closet.

"Yes." Tricia nodded curling onto Piper's old bed.

"Wyatt and Chris use to orb out." Penelope commented.

"Chris and Wyatt still orb out." Tricia whispered before she closed her eyes and fell asleep. Penelope nodded starring around the room once, picturing what it was in her time. She closed her eyes a moment and remembered the way that Wyatt had his bed set-up in the middle of the room, how there was a small basket hoop nailed to the door just like in Chris' room. She pictured her cousin Wyatt, standing in his room smiling at her taking care of everything from the demon hiding in her closet to the one following Chris. She sighed and opened her eyes because unfortunately Penelope and Patricia were not in their time and today in the past they were the ones taking care of everything.

The weekend had been spent in blurred moments of chaos, as Patricia and Penelope took it upon themselves to protect their clueless and rebellious teenage family member. Little did they know when they committed to the task that Paige didn't sleep at night, she snuck out to party until dawn. The future girls were not use to the tasking life of a partying teenager. Out of the Halliwell cousins, Patricia and Penelope were the first two in bed and the first two awake in the morning. Tricia did homework in a timely manner and never broke curfew. Penelope had been scared of the world outside of magic school and her family for the past year and had ignored the idea of high school parties and late night merriment. The middle children of both Paige and Phoebe left the rebellion and rule breaking to their older siblings and their older cousins.

Penelope yawned as she quickly re-braided her hair. She switched off the television she had left on and walked out into the hallway of the manor. After just a few steps, Pen pushed her ear up onto the closed door of her young mother's room. Listening to make sure that Phoebe had not disappeared in the night. Even though Penelope had not taken the night shift of watching her aunt Paige, she had been tormented all night but nightmares of her own mother being attacked by the werewolf. Pen recognized the dreams as actual fears and not visions of a possible future, in the short time of acknowledging and exercising her active powers she had gained a decent amount of control and understanding. She knew that it was impossible that the werewolf would attack a full blooded witch and even less likely that it would be stupid enough to attack the grand daughter of Penny Halliwell.

Not being able to hear any noises from inside her mother's room, Penelope focused on sensing until she recognized the heartbeat of a sleeping Phoebe. Breathing more easily, Pen started back on her path up to the dusty and unfamiliar attic of the manor in 1992. Stepping into the attic, Penelope found her great-grandmother talking to the ghost of her grandmother.

"Patty, I just don't know about these…" Penny was started but Patty started shaking her head when she noticed the younger girl walking in.

"Oh, I'm sorry." Penelope stuttered. She took steps back, trying to walk out of the attic. The candles around the rug flamed upward as Penny turned around angrily.

"What are you doing here?" Penny demanded.

"Mom!" Patty shouted alarmed.

"I needed to… I was going… I need…" Penelope stammered nervously. She never did well with authority. She was as flippant as Patience or as charming as Primrose.

"Well spit out then…" Penny snapped.

"Mom, stop it." Patty frowned.

"I don't have an active power." Penelope whispered trying to explain. She fidgeted with her hands as she yawned again.

"Why would you need an active power?" Penny questioned.

"You're watching Paige?" Patty asked carefully.

"I can't go unprotected." Penelope explained with her eyes downcast.

"And what were you going to do exactly?" Penny asked defensively.

"Create a potion, if that's all right?" Penelope asked carefully still not looking up.

"Mom," Patty sighed.

"Well go on then," Penny nodded her chin up but stood completely still next to the ghost of her daughter. Penelope glanced at them as she walked across to the large wooden chest where all the implements of the craft sat hidden. The chest was open as Penny had been performing the summoning spell, so Penelope only sat down in front of the open chest and started pulling out objects.

"Do you know what you're doing?" Penny asked from behind her.

"Yes ma'am." Penelope muttered as she clanked a few different glass vials up and out of the chest. Penelope methodically started pouring out her ingredients, without a word or hesitation as Patty and Penny watched silently from steps away. Oddly the young witch was not made nervous by her audience, even though in her time she had often been unable to maintain a level head under pressure from her older family members. She sliced and diced and mashed up different ingredients that she carefully placed into a metal mixing bowl. The impressive part of this activity was how Penelope was doing everything from memory. A puff of smoke finished the brew and Penelope started to bottle it up.

"Who taught you potions?" Penny asked.

"My aunts." Penelope smiled as she stood up.

"What does that potion do?" Patty asked.

"Creates fire balls, basically." Penelope smiled.

"How far into the future did you say you were from?" Penny asked.

"Didn't. See you later." Penelope winked before she hearted out of the attic in a bright red light.

"Isn't that a cupid power?" Patty asked suddenly.

"Yes, at least it looks like a cupid power." Penny nodded. "I told you, I don't think I trust these girls. They are secretive and strangely powerful."

"Mom, that little girl looked awfully tired. I don't think she's dangerous to anyone but herself." Patty commented frowning.

"This werewolf wasn't a problem until they showed up." Penny pointed her index finger straight into the air as she started to pace.

"How do you know they aren't here to protect Paige? After all, you can't protect her yourself mom and I can't because well I'm dead…" Patty shrugged.

"How do we know they aren't here to threaten Phoebe or Piper or Prue?" Penny continued to pace.

"Wasn't that little girl was just rummaging around near the book, wouldn't the book let us know if she was evil." Patty explained.

"She could be using some kind of enchantment. You saw how she made that potion from memory. That child is like 12, how could she do that?" Penny exclaimed.

"She had good teachers." Patty winked.

"Do you know something that I don't Patricia?" Penny demanded as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I have some guesses about those girls mom, I trust them." Patty shrugged. "Are you having the girls over for dinner?"

"Yes, I'm hoping that Piper and Prue can settle Phoebe down." Penny nodded.

"Because they all get along so well?" Patty sighed.

"Prue will talk some sense into the girl." Penny nodded curtly.

"Prue will yell at her," Patty rolled her eyes.

"Maybe that's what she needs, your daughters are impossible. I'm really not sure they will ever be able to handle their powers." Penny scrunched up her nose.

**October 16, 2023 **

"Who can tell me the importance of my hat?" Paige asked the class. She was prancing around the desks as she pointed to the cliché black witch's hat sitting atop her head.

"It tells the world you're a witch?" Someone snickered.

"It makes you look ridiculous?" Another student shouted.

"Are you trying to make a point about the stereotypical portrayal of witches as silly beings?" A girl in the front row scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"All wrong." Wyatt, or Chris in Wyatt's body, stood with his arms crossed at the back of the room. All the young students in the room turned around and gawked at the famous twice blessed son of the headmaster and nephew to their present teacher, a charmed one in her own right.

"If it isn't a goofy hat, what is it?" Hector asked snidely from the back row. The young empath knew what the hat was, but he enjoyed taunting and joking in class much more than being the know it all.

"A conical hat," Chris smiled as he walked up to his aunt and placed the hat on his head.

"Is a spiritual point, you see," Chris pointed to the very tip of the hat.

"It helps to channel our magic. It keeps us centered." Paige smiled.

"If we've got powers why is this important?" Another student asked.

"Sometimes you don't have powers…" Chris shrugged.

"All is fair on Halloween." Hector whispered to the class as fairy bells started ringing and students filed out of the room.

"Aunt Paige, we need you to…" Chris started.

"Now you're worried that you switched souls, now your urgently seeking our help?" Paige mocked as she started collecting her items.

"Come on aunt Paige, this isn't getting old with all of you? The adults in our lives shouldn't be holding so many grudges." Chris begged.

"When you and Wyatt endanger yourselves, and your entire magical family with your selfish childish behavior I can hold any kind of grudge that I want." Paige popped her lips at the end of the sentence.

"Do you want your perfect favorite nephew back in his own body?" Chris snapped as he stared at his own wristwatch.

"Chris, Wyatt is not my favorite." Paige rolled her eyes. "We should really get you a shrink."

"So you don't think that you are blaming me just a little bit more than you are blaming Wyatt for this?" Chris asked as the two family members started walking out of the classroom. Hector sat at his desk, quietly watching the exchange without being noticed.

"If you hadn't insisted upon getting involved…" Paige started.

"Oh here we go, perfect Wyatt who's never done anything wrong…" Chris threw up his hands. Hector chuckled noticing how absurd it was for the boy who looked like Wyatt to be so aggravated with his own self.

"Hector…" Melinda whispered into his ear. Hector jumped and fell out of his chair with a thud. Paige and Chris were far enough into the hallway to not notice the movement behind them.

"Mels," Hector coughed as he struggled against his own elbows.

"I might need your help." Melinda smiled wickedly.

"Doing what?" Hector asked slowly.

"Pandora and I have a plan." Melinda winked as she grabbed his hand and pulled him forcefully through the room and down the hall. The strength of Melinda's new power was propelled by her excitement and the energy of adrenaline that Hector was starting to fear. Melinda lead Hector into the Halliwell dormitory, the elegant Victorian styled room that had the velvet curtains pulled open streaming light over Pandora and Primrose sitting on some pillows on the ground.

"Is this the Halliwell dorm?" Hector asked surprised to be in the famous room. The walls were lined with portraits of warren women, some paintings of great battles or epic moments.

"Yes." Primrose giggled.

"Why is the little one here?" Hector asked awed by the largest painting of the charmed sisters breaking out of a cage in the underworld.

"I'm not that little anymore!" Primrose shouted.

"We needed three," Pandora commented.

"Is it wise to engage your youngest cousin in whatever hair-brained scheme that two of you have come up with?" Hector asked snapping his eyes back to Melinda.

"She's here just in case and you'll be here too." Melinda smiled.

"For what?" Hector demanded again, crossing his arms.

"My brothers are distracted." Melinda started.

"By switching souls and everything, little distracting." Hector nodded.

"And my mom and aunts aren't any closer to figure out how to switch them back." Melinda nodded.

"No," Hector started shaking his head.

"We did the research…" Pandora jumped in.

"HJ did the research." Hector shook his head.

"Yes, but then he was distracted by his pretty little charged." Dora rolled her eyes.

"And he wasn't allowed to help anymore." Melinda nodded.

"There's a Halliwell that does what he's told?" Hector mocked.

"He's a Mitchell." Primrose nodded carefully.

"Anyway, we did research and I think we can help." Melinda clapped.

"I think you're far to eager to get yourself killed." Hector was losing color from his face rapidly as he felt the excitement and understood the plan without it being explained.

"Hector!" Melinda stamped her foot. "You're the one that's been helping with our powers."

"Because left to your own devices, you would never develop the magic properly." Hector defended throwing up his hands.

"Because my brother can't be bothered with training me…" Melinda complained.

"You girls are still too young, just be teenagers right now." Dora mocked.

"Chris teaches me things." Primrose frowned.

"Yes, make them more upset that will help tiny cupid." Hector ran his hand over his forehead.

"We think," Dora smiled suddenly. "That with my dream ability and Melinda's speed and freeze powers."

"Stealing the orb of psyche? No offense, please don't take this personally, but your brothers Mel. The most powerful magical beings to ever exist couldn't even manage to get that orb out of the underworld." Hector sat down on the ground, feeling his defeat before it was actualized.

"Because every so often my brothers are stupid. Not to mention they didn't know what it was. We know what it is and have a plan." Melinda smiled.

"This is just a bad idea." Hector groaned. "Where are Patience and HJ?"

"Busy, as usually the case with all of our older siblings." Dora rolled her eyes.

"We need my brothers to be in their own bodies, we need our cousins back. We need to not be so vulnerable when the source rises." Melinda sat down and pouted.

"But you doing this, whatever this is, could be more dangerous and could make you all weaker." Hector sighed.

"It won't." Melinda shook her head.

"It could, can't you Halliwells for one second think about the possibilities of things going wrong? Terribly, terribly wrong." Hector frowned.

"If it was going to go wrong, we would see it. Power of sight…" Dora sang and winked at him.

"I'm not sure your power works that way, especially when you don't want to see it." Hector commented.

"Will you listen to the plan?" Primrose asked the older boy, cocking her head to one side and studying him.

"Don't either of you think you're setting a bad example for tiny here?" Hector asked calmly.

"Prim isn't going to do anything, except be our backup just if we need her." Dora shook her head.

"She has got a lot of punch in her powers." Melinda tried to justify and explain.

"What is the plan?" Hector asked.

In an emptying high school parking lot, Patience and Henry Jr. sat in the mustang that once belonged to a boy that Patience was still having trouble remembering. The two cousins sat in complete silence as the radio murmured static.

"Pat," Henry started.

"Yeah?" Patience asked snapping out of her trance.

"Do you think that we're strong enough to fight off the source of all evil?" Henry asked her seriously. Neither cousin looked at each other, both were starring off at the empty campus.

"We were born to fight demons." Patience frowned.

"We were born to do a lot of things though right? We're not going to spend our entire lives chasing down the evils that our mothers did?" Henry asked.

"Mom and the aunts killed three sources." Patience turned on Henry. Her eyes were sparkling a ruby red that would have reminded Dervin of Dorothy Gale and her slippers.

"And they had marriages, and loves, and careers…" Patience smiled sadly, as if remembering something lost to her.

"And Prue died young." Henry whispered.

"Maybe some of us will die." Patience nodded thoughtfully. Silence hung between the two cousins for seconds as the thought set in, death was never really a reality to the young cousins it was merely a tormenting thought that existed in dreams.

"But maybe we won't." Patience smiled. "But, right now we should get you some love?"

"You don't think this is a bad idea?" Henry frowned.

"I don't ever think love is a bad idea." Patience giggled.

"Aren't we jumping the gun, this isn't love…" Henry shifted his weight uncomfortably.

"Attraction is the beginning of all great love affairs." Patience winked.

"She's my charge." Henry argued.

"But she's not suppose to be." Patience winked. "So the universe is already trying to put you two together."

"As some cruel joke or for entertainment?" HJ scratched the back of his head.

"Entertainment." Patience repeated the word, her eyes squinting in thought. Coop had finally explained to HJ, Chris and Wyatt that Patience had been sealed from Dervin so HJ recognized the distress of not being able to recall a memory that was hidden in one's own mind. HJ disagreed with the action that Coop had taken, as did Wyatt and Chris, but there was too much going on without having to worry that Patience's powers wouldn't work because of Dervin.

"So what are we doing here?" HJ asked.

"Here," Patience snapped her fingers and a bouquet of hydrangeas appeared in her hand. Pushing back a strand of her short hair behind her ear, Patience cupped a hand around her ear and closed her eyes tightly.

"Tell her you like her blouse and when she asks you why you're here…" Patience paused for a moment. Henry took the flowers from her fingers impressed but trying not to show it that the girl had been able to so immediately conjure the flowers.

"Tell her that you just wanted to walk her to her car, make sure she was safe. And when she asks you about the flowers, tell her they reminded you of her. When she tells you about her photograph this weekend, invite her to the exhibit tonight." Patience opened her eyes and smiled.

"How does that work?" Henry asked curiously.

"What?" Patience asked.

"The cupid powers?" Henry asked.

"It's like reading a book, sort of. I don't know it's hard to explain, but you're going to miss your chance. Go." Patience's voice pushed open Henry's door with a gust of wind and the boy stumbled out of the car without any grace.

Amelle Hopi was stepping out of the main building of the campus, carrying a large photography bag and her backpack. Her pale face was shinning with excitement over something that had happened during the day and her bright red curls were twisted up into a bun at the base of her neck. Her green eyes were focused on the steps she was taking down the concrete steps so she didn't notice HJ walking towards her.

She first noticed his black tennis shoes with the crisp white laces and smiled. Slowly she lifted her gaze taking in his black pants and his tight fitting white t-shirt.

"Jay," She smiled brightly for him when she reached the flowers.

"Amelle let me help you." Henry handed her the flowers while smoothly pulling her camera bag off her shoulder. He even managed to hold out his arm to offer her his help as they walked across the parking lot.

"What are you doing here?" Amelle questioned.

"I thought you might be leaving school late, maybe you should have someone walk you to your car. Keep you out of trouble." Henry smiled.

"The trouble follows me." Amelle nodded. "But you didn't have too…"

"It is my job to protect you." HJ winked.

"Yes, my own personal guardian angel. Who would have thought." Amelle pulled him closer.

"No more attacks?" HJ asked seriously.

"You would know." Amelle smiled.

"What did you do then during this attack free time?" He asked as he carefully opened the door to her car.

"Take pictures." Amelle shrugged. HJ nodded placing her objects into the passenger seat carefully.

"You know, with your love for taking pictures. I was wondering if you might want to go to the photography exhibit at one of the small galleries near the painted ladies." HJ smiled as he closed the passenger door. Amelle was climbing into her side of the car carefully lingering.

"When?" She asked.

"Tonight is the last night." HJ couldn't stop smiling as he walked around the front of the car.

"Are you just trying to keep me safe?" She asked her eyes searching his for the truth.

"Always. But this might also be fun." HJ winked at her as he closed her car door. Amelle pressed her window down, but didn't say yes just nodded and started the car.

Patience watched the exchange from her car, a rising success filling her with a joy. She ripped a bag of chips open that had been sitting in her lap and popped a handful of chips into her mouth. HJ was jogging towards the car with a goofy smile plastered to his face when Patience pushed open her own door and started to heave all the chips she had just consumed.

"Is she running a fever?" Phoebe was asking her nephew over the phone. Phoebe was cutting up an apple as her cell phone was pressed up to her with her shoulder. Piper was sitting on the other side of the room reading through a book that was larger than the table it rested on.

"Maybe the two of them should just come here," Piper suggested.

"Throwing up is not usually a magical problem Piper." Paige sighed as she muttered over a vanity mirror she had placed in-between Chris and Wyatt.

"Its not magical. I think I would be able to figure out what it feels like to have a power surge." Chris yawned.

"If you were actually yourself and Wyatt was himself, he would be able to tell us for sure if it was a problem." Piper mumbled bitterly.

"Mom, how many times do we have to say we're sorry?" Wyatt asked.

"I don't know yet." Piper grumbled.

"None of this is working, is it possible that their souls are already too bound?" Phoebe whispered.

"No. We are not giving up." Paige flicked her wrist over the mirror and waited to see if the object worked. Well it stopped spinning she stared at her nephews expectantly.

"Still have this stupid surfer hair." Chris sighed.

"And I still have scrawny arms." Wyatt spat.

"You two could be useful instead of acting like spoiled children." Paige groaned.

"Mom, I really want to be in my own body." Wyatt begged his mother. Piper tapped her fingers against the book she was reading.

"Do you?" She asked.

"Mom, why don't the power of three spells work?" Chris asked.

"I don't know peanut." Piper shook her head. The charmed ones were tired. They had been consumed with trying to switch back their irresponsible heirs since the night before. Piper hadn't even had time to yell at her sons because from the moment that Leo had explained what had happened the sisters had fallen into researching immediately. Blended souls was a serious business, actually any magic involving souls was bad news.

"Soul blending is dark magic, it's not something we know a lot about." Phoebe explained.

"And since you two took so long not telling us and not doing anything about it yourselves." Paige gritted her teeth.

"Maybe if we re-work a blood to blood spell?" Paige suddenly brightened up.

"That might work." Phoebe nodded excitedly.

"What if I went to ask Benji?" Chris asked carefully.

"Benji?" Piper snapped up.

"Our demon source." Wyatt nodded excited at the prospect of something that might work and let them get out for a time. The boys had been locked in the same room for longer than either appreciated.

"Demon source?" Piper crossed her arms.

"He's like a snitch, no big deal." Chris explained.

"You two want to go announce to the underworld that you're not in your proper bodies? Hey rising source, Wyatt and Chris complete open targets right now come and attack our whole family?" Piper asked sarcastically.

"Well that would be a bit extreme, don't you think that rising source would just attack Wyatt and Chris." Paige rolled her eyes.

"So I'm guessing you don't think we should go?" Chris crossed his arms in annoyance.

"No. I don't think so." Piper shook her head.

"Well if we don't want to alert the underworld to our switched souls, or to any problems maybe we should keep our commitments tonight?" Wyatt asked.

"What commitments?" Chris asked.

"I have class." Wyatt shrugged.

"Which means you have class." Paige pointed at Chris.

"And don't you have class little brother?" Wyatt glared at his own face.

"A date actually." Chris commented.

"Seriously you want to go to class and on a date when you're not in your own bodies?" Phoebe demanded.

"I think they don't want to sit here anymore." Paige laughed.

"Well tough, no one is going to notice anything if you two miss one thing. So you will sit there and read those books down there and try to figure out more ways that we can fix this little mess of yours." Piper walked over to Paige and the book of shadows and ignored her sons. Phoebe gave the boys an apologetic but this is your fault look before she started helping Paige and Piper.

Verity Vanguard sat by herself at a dinner for two, in one of the little café places near P3 waiting for Chris. As an oracle, she had a sneaking suspicion that the young man was going to stand her up but something had pushed her into still showing up. The waiter walked past the table for the third time sneaking a look of understanding towards the pretty girl with the strange hair. Verity sipped at her glass of water and tapped at her empty salad plate with her fork momentarily debating summoning her careless boyfriend to the restaurant. She reached for her purse and started to pull out a couple of dollars to leave as a tip for a meal-less dinner when a strange yet familiar hand pulled her purse out of her hands.

"Why waste such a perfect evening just because a certain boy stood you up?" The voice asked. Verity turned to find the dark curls of the man that had saved her from her lonely evening at the theater.

"Nemod." She smiled.

"Verity." He winked as he took the seat across from her. "Mind if I join you?"

"Well I am alone." She cast down her eyes in shame and a flash of anger.

"I'm sure he has a delightfully good reason." Nemod laughed.

"He always does." Verity sighed.

"Yes, well that's what Chris does. Make excuses. But let's not talk of him, let's have a delicious dinner." Nemod winked at her as he opened his own menu. Verity nodded forgetting about her boyfriend completely as Nemod suggested and opening her menu. The couple laughed and chatted and acted like any of the other dating couples around them enough so that when the waiter stopped by again he found himself happy that the girl had not been stood up after all.

"Ok, I think we're ready." Melinda clapped her hands together.

"Where does your family think you are?" Hector asked concerned.

"At home, hours ago. Don't worry once this works, we'll go right home." Melinda smiled.

"Primrose and Pandora are going to fall asleep?" Hector asked for the third time.

"Yes, after Dora orbs me to the underworld." Melinda nodded.

"Alone because you are suicidal?" Hector demanded.

"I think Hector might have a point on that, maybe he should go with you." Dora pointed out as she settled onto the large bed in the dorm.

"But he should be invisible, like he is sometimes in the hallway." Primrose nodded.

"How are we going to get back?" Hector asked not rejecting the idea of going with Melinda.

"Dora will orb us back." Melinda nodded.

"Pandora doesn't actually have the ability to orb." Hector argued.

"Not unless she really wants it, we've been practicing." Melinda nodded excitedly.

"This is just a bad idea. We should get Chris or Wyatt…." Hector begged again.

"No, we can do this. It's going to be quick, we'll make the guards fall asleep and I will quickly ran to the orb of psyche while Dora and Prim fight the demons in their sleep. Then Dora will orb us back." Melinda smiled.

"While she's asleep, can't you see the thousand things that could go wrong with this insane plan?" Hector asked.

"Nothing is going to go wrong." Dora shook her head and yawned. "I can do a lot of things while asleep. Don't worry."

"Someone help us." Hector begged the portraits of the ancient Halliwells as him and Melinda orbed out of the room.

**October 17, 2023 **

It was seconds before midnight when HJ was walking Amelle up to her door. The porch light was on still and once the two young people stepped into its pool of brightness, Amelle leaned forward. HJ took his cue immediately leaning forward to kiss the girl. The harmless joy of a shared first kiss would have been perfect but the universe had other plans. HJ stumbled away from Amelle quite suddenly.

"Jay, what's wrong?" Amelle panicked. HJ held onto the wall behind him, as his head tilted downward and his breathing was unstable.

"Go inside, make sure the crystals are intact." HJ begged her quickly. Amelle nodded and ran inside her house as HJ slipped off the steps and out of the light and orbed away.

A laughter bounced through the ancient throne room as Nemod circled around a steel cage that one once not only held Primrose but the charmed ones themselves. Melinda sat clutching the Orb of Psyche to her chest standing in the middle of the cage, hyperventilating at her present predicament. Hector stood next to her protective trying to control his rapid heartbeat worried that the loud beats would give away his invisible position in the cage.

"I suspected that a Halliwell would be visiting me again down here, but I thought it would be Wyatt or Chris. Never you…" Nemod laughed staring at Melinda.

"Guys," Melinda grumbled.

"This is so much better than Wyatt or Chris, so much better to have the baby sister of my favorite brothers." Nemod laughed again.

"What are you going to do?" Melinda asked.

"Arrange a little deal, yes this is going to work out well indeed." Nemod nodded and winked at her.

"What deal?" Melinda whimpered.

"You want your family to know where you are? And not walk into a trap?" Nemod asked her snapping his fingers making his bodyguards appear behind him, in a straight line of intimidating demons.

"What do you want?" Melinda asked carefully.

"Give me your hand," Nemod held out his hands for hers. He smiled.

"What will you do?" Melinda asked.

"I won't hurt you." Nemod promised. "Not really."

"What do you want?" Melinda asked carefully.

"A drop of your blood and I will dismiss all the guards and call one of your brothers to save you. I will let you go safely." Nemod promised as he crossed his heart.

"Just a drop." Nemod nodded.

"Can I have the orb?" Melinda whispered.

"No." Nemod responded quickly. "But why does little Melinda Halliwell want the orb?"

"My brothers," Melinda started but Hector stabbed her in the back, carefully stopping her without giving himself away.

"Well the deals that we can make are going to be wonderful indeed. Wonderful indeed. But before we call big brothers, I need your blood first." Nemod reached out his hands again.

"Do it yourself." Hector whispered to her.

"Just a drop?" Melinda asked again.

"Just a drop." Nemod nodded pushing the little dagger he had in his belt into the cage. Nemod had been watching the Halliwells enough over the last decade to understand that Melinda, even though young and naïve would not let him near her with a weapon.

Melinda picked up the dagger and held it up to her hand and slipped the knife down the inside of what looked like her hand. Hector had placed his invisible hand into Melinda's palm and let his own hand be cut. Nemod waved a little metal bowl into the cage that caught the dripping blood that he believed to be Melinda's. After the blood was collected, Melinda pierced her own hand to keep up the appearance before she kicked the bowl back towards Nemod. He smiled and held out his hand to her now.

"I'll send your aunt a message through you, come now." He motioned for her to take his hand. Melinda reached out and pressed only the tips of her fingers against Nemod's knuckles.

Magic School was a calm silent, as everyone was sleeping, until two Halliwell cousins burst out of the dorm. They skipped through the center gardens in the darkness, pushing into the main classroom building. Dora and Primrose ran down the endless hallway panting until they burst into the room where the charmed ones were still busy trying to work out Wyatt and Chris magical mishap.

"I'm sorry," Dora cried loudly.

"Melinda," Wyatt jumped to his feet. HJ appeared behind Dora and placed his arms around his younger sister. Chris meanwhile orbed Primrose to him and clutched the little girl to Wyatt's chest.

"What is happening?" Paige asked.

"Melinda, what's wrong with Melinda? Why are you here?" Piper demanded walking towards the new children in the room.

"Melinda is in the underworld." Phoebe stumbled against the chair.

"Melinda is where?" Piper's eyes popped open.

"Nemod has Melinda in a cage and he's asking for Wyatt and Chris." Phoebe was swaying as she held onto the edge of the table.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Piper demanded.

"We have to go," Wyatt stated immediately.

"It's a trap." Chris held Wyatt down.

"Why is Melinda in the underworld?" Piper turned on Dora and Primrose.

"We were trying to get the Orb, to get Wyatt and Chris back to normal." Dora stuttered out to her aunt. "Nothing was going to go wrong."

"Nothing was going to go wrong? NOTHING?" HJ shook his sister's shoulders.

"Melinda went into the underworld alone?" Chris asked Primrose.

"Dora and I were fighting in the demons dreams." Prim explained carefully.

"Why would you do this?" Chris asked the girl in his arms.

"I wanted you to be you again." Primrose cried into Chris shoulder.

"We have to go get Melinda." Wyatt suggested.

"Hold on," Phoebe sighed.

"We can't leave her down there unprotected." Wyatt urged.

"Hector is with her," Dora choked.

"Hector Ariza, the empath?" Chris asked confused.

"Yes, under a professor's invisibility cloak." Dora nodded.

"Hold on," Phoebe stated louder.

There was silence in the room suddenly as all eyes turned to stare at Phoebe. Phoebe had her hands covering her face as her mouth moved to explain.

"Nemod desires an audience with only Wyatt, actually he says that Chris can come to but that is it. If anyone else comes he will kill Melinda." Phoebe stated.

"It's a trap, how do we know he's not going to kill all three of them." Paige shook her head.

"There is absolutely no way I'm sending my boys down there." Piper shouted.

"He will not hurt them. He is completely alone. He won't kill them, but they must come alone. He says to remember he's a demon of his word." Phoebe's hands were shaking as she took them off her face.

"No, no, no, no." Piper stated fiercely looking at her sons. But Wyatt and Chris didn't wait, didn't give their mother or aunts time to think before they disappeared down into the underworld after their little sister.

"It appears all of you are just as reckless as the other." Nemod sat on top of an alter swinging his legs nonchalantly as he sat next to the cage that held Melinda.

"I'm sorry," Melinda choked back a tear when her brothers appeared. Chris gave her a supportive smile in Wyatt's body and Wyatt just glared at her.

"It's true then, you have switched bodies?" Nemod clapped amused.

"You told him!" Wyatt growled.

Nemod was true to his word the only living souls in the throne room were the three Halliwells and himself and the invisible Hector. Melinda was still standing in her cage clutching the orb to her chest against her purple t-shirt. Everyone that was visible in the room appeared tired, even Nemod was not in his usual pristine state with his shirt wrinkled and his hair much messier than usual. The jaunt up the path of evil or against the source of all evil was proving tiring to both sides.

"I can help you two switch back, even if this is amusing." Nemod smiled.

"Why would you do that?" Chris asked.

"Not without a price of course." Nemod nodded as he stepped down.

"What is the price?" Wyatt crossed his arms, looking eerily like Chris.

"I want just a drop of your blood." Nemod smiled. Chris walked towards the cage carefully, starring at his sister's clutched hand and noticing the blood.

"You got some of Melinda's blood…" Chris commented.

"Yes, that was the deal to call you down here." Nemod nodded.

"And you got some of my blood already, what are you doing?" Chris asked.

"Odd to get Chris perception from Wyatt's mouth." Nemod chuckled.

"What are you doing?" Chris demanded again.

Nemod grinned as he cast his eyes down. Chris walked around the cage his youngest sibling was in, carefully examining if she was hurt and attempting to see if Hector had been discovered. Once he reached the front side of the cage again, he naturally stood near his own body housing Wyatt. Nemod snapped his fingers and the orb appeared in his hand for a nanosecond before he threw it in-between the brothers. The orb crashed and shattered into many pieces right in-between the brothers causing both boys to fall to the ground.

"What did you do?" Melinda screamed.

"Oh darling, don't screech like that. Your brothers are fine, but soul switching or blending which is much more what this is like, is like being socked in the stomach." Nemod explained. He slammed the keys into the cage and dramatically but not twisting them, left them unattended as he waltzed over to the fallen brothers.

"What are you doing?" Melinda whispered. She stood glued to her spot in the cage. Hector was a quicker thinker as he moved quietly forward and started to twist the key but Nemod didn't notice.

"I could kill them now," Nemod whispered hopeful.

"It wouldn't work." Melinda stated forcefully.

"Yes, yes of course it wouldn't. Wyatt and Chris are powerful in their sleep, why they wouldn't join me…" Nemod laughed as he bent down and pulled out the same dagger Melinda had just used.

"Why does the knife go through Wyatt's force field?" Melinda asked stepping forward, only slightly. Hector had pushed open the cage door and stepped out himself but was still trying to remain hidden.

"This little dagger, it has a history with your brother." Nemod laughed as he pierced Wyatt in the shoulder. Wyatt grunted in pain but didn't wake as blood started to trickle down his arm. Nemod quickly collected the blood and stepped away with a jump and hop to turn to Melinda.

"Ah you let yourself out, good I was starting to worry that you had lost some of your spunk which would make me so sad." Nemod laughed.

"Why do you need our blood?" Melinda asked stepping closer to her brothers.

"Can't give away the ending can I?" Nemod winked as he stepped back and held out his arms in a grand gesture before he smoked out of the room.

"How do we leave?" Melinda shouted.

"Melinda, you're a witch." Hector sighed as he finally dropped his hood.

"Does your hand hurt?" Melinda asked scurrying over to check the boy's hand.

"I don't self heal, so you know if when Chris wakes up he doesn't want to kill me I'd love it if he heals it." Hector held out his hand.

"Why did you do that?" Melinda asked.

"Sometimes, I think you Halliwells can't think past the moment you're living in." Hector frowned. "I couldn't let him have your blood. We don't know what he's doing with it."

"But now he has your blood?" Melinda frowned.

"My blood is not as important as yours, he thinks he has yours. This is safer for you." Hector winked at her. "Until your brothers wake up."

"They are going to be mad?" Melinda nodded as she sat down in-between Chris and Wyatt.

"Livid, if I'm feeling them correctly." Hector shivered.

"Are we just going to sit here?" Melinda demanded crossing her arms.

"Well one of us could try to tap into your brothers orbbing powers, I might be able to…" Hector gritted his teeth and closed his eyes.

Nothing happened as Hector stood near Chris' legs trying to tap into the brothers' powers. After a few minutes, Hector let out an aggravated gasp and opened his dark brown eyes.

"The Halliwell brother magic is not as easy to steal as demons like to believe." He sighed. Hector ran his hand through his curls and walked around the brothers and Melinda slowly, taking in the entire throne room that they had been left in.

"Not to gloat, but I told you this was a bad idea." Hector finally stated.

"I'm going to be grounded forever." Melinda sighed as she slipped her left hand into Chris open hand.

"Aren't you already grounded?" Hector asked.

"You know I use to be the good one." Melinda's lower lip pouted out as she rested her right hand into Wyatt's hand.

"Should I sit with you in the middle, you're right it should work." Hector asked. Melinda nodded and the boy moved to sit crossed leg in-between the brothers.

The four figures orbed away from the throne room after a few tries from Melinda. It was nearing four in the morning and Magic School had regained its peaceful slumber after the Halliwell clan had departed. Leo Wyatt was alone in his office, looking through some ancient book while sipping on a cup of coffee when his children reappeared.

Wyatt started coughing while Chris began to groan as soon as the boys slammed onto the marble floor of their father's office.

"Hector, you should go to bed. I expect you to still be in your morning class." Leo stated without looking up from his paper.

"Yes sir." Hector whispered.

"Dad, don't you think that maybe you could excuse him from his first class?" Melinda asked giving her father her best innocent smile.

"You're going to class too, its only fair if he does. You both knew you were making a bad decision." Leo looked up at his daughter.

"I knew more than she did, sir." Hector nodded taking responsibility.

"We'll talk more about this tomorrow. Good night," Leo nodded at the boy. Hector mouthed good luck to Melinda before he stepped out of the office.

"Where's mom?" Chris sat up and blinked a few times as he scanned the room.

"She called me and told me to take care of my children." Leo sipped his coffee again.

"So she wants to kill us?" Wyatt stayed on the ground.

"You kids are upsetting your mother more than usual lately." Leo sighed.

"Dad I was just trying to help," Melinda began trying to explain.

"Yes," Leo nodded. "In the most dangerous way possible sweetheart."

"I thought nothing would go wrong." Melinda crossed her arms defensively.

"When you decided to go into the underworld, into the source's throne room completely alone. You thought nothing would go wrong?" Wyatt asked angrily. Chris was smacking his hands against his own arms as he stood up.

"I'm in my body," Chris was saying as he stared into one of the mirrors near the bookshelves.

"Phoebe did see that." Leo nodded smiling despite everything.

"Melinda you could have gotten yourself killed." Wyatt spat as he ran his hand through his own hair with a smile plastered to his face.

"That was pretty stupid Mels." Chris sighed walking over to his sister and throwing his hand around her shoulders.

"It was a solid plan." Melinda replied stubbornly.

"I highly doubt that." Wyatt rolled his eyes.

"Things are going to get very complicated and very dangerous, your mother and I can't sleep because we're terrified that one of you is going to do something stupid." Leo set down his coffee mug.

"Was this what it was like?" Chris asked quietly.

"What?" Leo asked starring at him.

"When the source was after mom and the aunts, was this what it was like?" Chris asked.

"This isn't going to be easy, you could each make it a little easier if you thought before you made your decisions. Don't just run down into the underworld alone, without one of your brothers…" Leo stared at Chris and Melinda in particular. "Don't try to protect each other at the expense of yourself."

"Mom doesn't believe she can stop this anymore?" Wyatt asked.

"A new source is rising and after tonight, we're positive there is nothing we can do anything about it." Leo sighed.

The family was quiet for a few minutes letting the thought sink in before Melinda yawned.

"Chris, please take your sister home. I have you substituting for Paige in the Halloween Traditions class at 8 AM." Leo tapped at his desk.

"Dad?" Chris whined.

"Don't want to hear it," Leo shook his head.

"It wasn't my idea to go down after the orb," Chris muttered.

"Melinda?" Leo added. "You know you're grounded for another two weeks?"

"Yeah, I figured." Melinda sighed.

"Let your mother know you are all safe and in the right bodies?" Leo asked Chris. Chris nodded and orbed away with Melinda still under his arm. Leo motioned for Wyatt to sit at the empty chair in front of him.

"You have to keep an eye on your brother and sister," Leo yawned.

"Because they're reckless immature brats." Wyatt gritted his teeth impatiently.

"You can't do things alone." Leo ignored his son.

"Dad, its just Nemod. We can take care of Nemod." Wyatt frowned looking at his father concerned.

"The last time a source came after our family, your mother almost died. And one of your aunts did die." Leo sighed as he reached out to place his hand over his son's shaking wrist.

"There isn't a source yet…" Wyatt responded stubbornly.

* * *

_Author's Note: I'm soo sorry this has taken so long, I was writing _a Chrismtas story _and well life was happening. I am going to try to move this along, becuase I know where it's ending but there is still a good 6 chapters to go. Please patience, but let me know what you think! _


	13. Face The Unknown

**Face the Unknown **

_Leave Me Alone, Veronicas _

**October 18, 1992 **

The tension around the dining room table was almost unbearable. Penelope and Patricia sat teetering on the edge of their chairs, staring at their plates and tapping with their forks to avoid the nonverbal fight between Penny and her granddaughters.

"I didn't come to dinner to be lectured grams," Prue snapped.

"All I'm saying is that it wouldn't kill you girls to come visit more often." Penny commented.

"We are here now grams," Piper tried to diffuse the tension. Tricia glanced up at her aunt Piper, confused by the passive nature of her toughest aunt.

"The only reason that grams wants you here is because she thinks you'll be good influences, or something." Phoebe crunched down on a piece of ice in her mouth.

"Didn't you get kicked out of school again?" Prue demanded snidely.

"Prue," Piper sighed. "I told you, she just got suspended. And it probably wasn't her fault…"

"Oh it was entirely her fault. I don't understand why you hang out with that Todd Marks and Rick boy anyway." Grams slammed her fork into her plate. Penelope was sitting next to her great grandmother and in her discomfort the young namesake dropped her fork onto the kitchen floor.

"Grams, I'm sure that Phoebe's friends are decent people." Piper argued. The clattering of the fork was loud in the silence that followed and as Penelope ducked quickly to pick up the silverware, Penny also bent down. Both women pressed their fingers onto the dropped fork and Pen gasped and as she became light headed she steadied her body with the chair and forgot the fork.

_Penny Halliwell was older, older than she had ever lived to be and she was still alive. She had just secretly administered a power-binding potion to Prue Halliwell. A blink. The same potion was being given to Piper, a girl with bangs that was in her early twenties and hadn't meet her soul mate Leo Wyatt yet. A blink. Phoebe was in New York and Grams had flown out just to give the girl a cup of tea that had a power-binding potion stirred in. _

"Are you all right?" Prue asked Pen. Pen coughed, pretending to choke on a carrot that she had just popped into her mouth.

"Ye-ye-yea." Pen sat up and kept up the rouse of coughing. Prue smacked her lightly on the back. At the contact of Prue's hand on Pen's back, the witch started blinking uncontrollably.

_A blond Prue in a limo with assistants was driving up to the Manor. Piper was young but married, no divorced, with a daughter but no sons. Prue was older than she had lived to be, older and selfish. She had come to see Piper to come up with a plan to save Phoebe. Phoebe was convicted of a crime, of witchcraft. _

Penelope gasped, choking now in reality, instead of just as an act. Tricia jumped up from her seat now recognizing the rapid color change of her cousin's irises as a sign of visions.

"Did you use peanut oil in the meal?" Tricia asked quickly. Patricia knew that Penny had used peanut oil, knowledge that came from her tapping into her ability to see the past quickly and with decisive desire. The calm and magically disinclined twin forced her powers to work in a manner that was useful to her at that particular moment.

"Yes…" Penny responded surprised.

"Sorry, Callista is deathly allergic. We should get her medicine. Excuse us…" Tricia acted quickly and removed her cousin from the dining room table and hurried her up the stairs. Once the two girls stepped off the top step, Patricia stopped and hurriedly checked over her shoulder.

"Was it mom?" She asked worried.

"No," Pen choked. Tricia coughed gasping for breath for the first time since she had jumped from her seat at the dinner table. Pen pushed her cousin into the room they were sharing and shut the door tightly waiting to speak until the lock clicked.

"I should go check on mom," Tricia sighed looking longingly at one of the beds.

"Wait," Pen curled her fingers around Tricia's right elbow. At the touch, Penelope slipped down to her knees.

_Paige walked out of a seven-eleven holding a large gulp. She had walked away from her group of friends and was quickly traveling out of the pooling light. As her foot stepped out of the light and into the darkness the loud panting of a canine could be heard. _

"We have to go, go now." Pen smacked her hand into Tricia's knee. The girls immediately orbed away from the protection of the manor and into the darkness of Penelope's vision. They arrived at the seven-eleven where Paige was nowhere to be seen and the street lamps weren't even on, as the sun was just setting.

"Where is mom?" Tricia asked walking away from Penelope in search of the familiar army green jacket.

"She was here under the street lamp, then she stepped into the darkness…" Penelope started explaining.

"Penelope, it's not dark outside yet." Tricia rolled her eyes and pointed to the setting sun.

"The calendar…" Penelope whispered walking away from Tricia and into the seven-eleven.

"Where are you going?" Tricia demanded. Penelope ignored her cousin and strode into the little convenience store, with a purpose. Tricia crossed her arms and stood her ground outside the store, deciding that she would not follow her cousin blindly anywhere because that only meant problems. Tricia leaned against the wall and closed her eyes trying to focus on her mother's actual location. As Tricia zeroed in on her white lighter ability to locate Paige, Penelope stepped back out onto the sidewalk.

"You didn't follow me." Penelope reproached.

"Did you find a demon in the quickie mart?" Tricia mocked flashing her eyes open.

"No. But," Pen frowned. "We shouldn't separate…"

"You know in the past there aren't three of us," Tricia suddenly explained as if their greatest weakness had just dawned on her.

"Not all the evils in the world require the power of three," Penelope argued unconvincingly.

"Maybe, but I've never fought a demon without my sister…" Tricia explained.

"Neither have I, but we're basically like sisters…" Penelope shrugged.

"My mom is at home, having dinner with her parents." Tricia explained as she shut her eyes again to confirm her information.

"I was seeing October 20th, so two days from now is when aunt Paige is going to get attacked." Pen stared off at the setting sun.

"How do you know?" Tricia asked.

"I saw a calendar in my vision, it was more detailed than usual." Pen stated confused. Tricia squinted but nodded at the information, she could feel the power in her pulsing in a way that was unfamiliar but natural. She shot out her arm and pulled Penelope into an alleyway, out of sight before they orbed back to the manor.

As the cousins arrived back in the room, there was a soft knock on the door.

"Can I come in?" Piper's squeaky and unconfident voice asked.

"Please," Tricia jumped over to open the door of the room. Piper Halliwell stood in the doorway, wearing a large fluffy shirt that shouted insecurity. The young Piper was nothing like the Piper that Pen and Tricia knew in the future. She lacked confidence, poise, independence and leadership that were so prominent to her personality in 2023.

"Piper," Penelope asked more than stated as she sat on her own bed.

"Are you all right?" Piper asked stepping into the room. Tricia pointed mockingly at the high-rise ponytail with a "what was she thinking" face.

"Yes, took care of it before it got too bad." Pen smiled at her aunt.

"I'm sorry about that, Grams didn't tell me that you were allergic to anything. I just wanted to make sure I didn't kill you or anything." Piper laughed nervously.

"No worries," Pen smiled.

"Are you two friends with Phoebe?" Piper asked carefully as she shoved her hands into her pockets. Tricia stepped back confused at the habit. It was not something that future Piper never did but Chris, on the other hand, constantly shoved his hands into his pockets when nervous.

"We are daughters of some of your grams friends, we don't really know Phoebe." Pen explained casting down her eyes down at the lie.

"Oh," Piper sighed disappointed.

"Did you need us to know Phoebe?" Tricia finally spoke up. Piper paced around her childhood room and ran her fingers along the dresser.

"I'm worried about her, usually. You both seemed as if you are in some kind of trouble…" Piper sighed starring at Tricia in particular. Piper's eyes bore into Tricia, searching for why the girl looked familiar. Piper might be less confident, less like her self, but even in the past she had a power to understand her family members unlike anyone else in the Halliwell clan.

"Not too much trouble." Pen lied again.

"Yes," Piper whispered snapping her attention to Penelope.

"Can we help you with something else?" Pen asked.

"No," Piper stated slowly. "But if you two need something, anything. Just ask."

Even Piper didn't understand why she was offering her help to these two strange girls. But something was compelling Piper to help, something familiar and strong about the two girls standing before her.

"You shouldn't worry about us," Penelope started.

"Let me worry about that, got it?" Piper's eyebrows shot up as she reinforced her own demand.

"Yeah, we got it au…" Tricia started.

"Thanks Piper. We'll try to keep an eye on Phoebe, while we're here." Pen smiled. Piper nodded decisively and walked out of the room without another word.

"That was weird." Tricia yawned as she stepped over to the bed she had been longing for since Penelope woke her up hours before.

"I think she feels our connection, more importantly I think she must be somewhat inclined to take care of us." Pen explained.

"Why? She doesn't know who we are." Tricia crawled underneath the blankets.

"The point is, I think she does without really knowing. Our blood ties are more powerful than I think we even know. My powers…" Pen yawned.

"Your powers?" Tricia whispered.

"Stronger…" Pen started saying but didn't finish before she was asleep again.

**October 19, 2023 **

Patience was curled underneath a quilt on a red couch munching on a bowl of strawberries with whipped cream. Her short dark brown locks were pushed back in a terry headband and her toes were peeking out against the edge of the couch.

"Feeling better?" Henry Jr. asked as he appeared in the kitchen. The young man opened a cabinet and started shifting through packages of food until he found a snack.

"Yes, a stomach bug I think. Don't you have class?" Patience asked focusing back on the mid-morning movie that was playing on a local cable channel. HJ settled on pouring some cereal into a large popcorn bowl and shoving a spoon into his mouth before he answered his cousin.

"Since when do you care?" He murmured between corn pops. He walked over to the couch and settled into the cozy armchair and glanced at the playing movie.

"Isn't this Buffy the Vampire Slayer?" HJ asked.

"I don't know…" Wrinkles formed in-between the beautiful girl's face in frustration.

"We've seen this a million times. It's Dervin's favorite movie." HJ explained without thinking.

"Dervin, who's Dervin?" Patience choked the unfamiliar question, her very body rejecting the lost memory.

"Oh, maybe he's just one of my friends…" HJ replied quickly, startled.

"Why do you lie to her?" Cole asked in a whisper.

"Later," HJ dismissed the friendly spirit before turning to smile at his cousin. "So you're not feeling sick today? You just playing sick to stay home?"

"I am tired, worn out. Need my strength right? I mean with a missing sister and crazy psychopath rising to be the source of all evil that wants us all dead…" Patience winked.

"I don't think he wants us dead." HJ commented.

"He will one day." Patience shrugged.

"But today, I don't think he wants us dead today." HJ nodded.

"Did you come here to check on me? Or just to get a snack?" Patience asked as she flipped the channel, being unnerved by the familiarity of the lines coming from the main characters of a movie made before she was born.

"Chris is going to blame us for Melinda yesterday." HJ shoved another spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"You bet your ass, I'm going to blame you two for Melinda yesterday." Chris appeared behind HJ, placing his two hands on the younger boy's shoulders. HJ jumped and spit out some of the milk and chewed corn pops out of his mouth and onto the front of his sweatshirt.

"Enjoying being back in your body, careless death seeking cuz?" Patience asked scathingly.

"Want to play that game, dear little cupid cousin?" Chris glared at her.

"Reminding you of your faults helps give you focus on how we're really much better behaved and balanced than you are." Patience smiled sweetly at him.

"I've been training both of you, with your active powers for months. Melinda doesn't know how to control her freezing power from her premonitions." Chris crossed his arms. HJ was wiping the front of his sweatshirt with the inside part of his sleeve.

"We should have been paying more attention to the girls, I never thought that your little sister would do something so reckless." HJ remarked sarcastically.

"I need you to be the big brother for once and not depend on me or Wyatt to take care of your younger siblings." Chris snapped at Henry.

"What does that mean?" HJ jumped to his feet angrily.

"It means that it is Dora's fault that Mels was taken yesterday. And it is Dora's fault that Pen and Tricia are stuck in the past." Chris listed.

"Chris that's not fair. Melinda made those choices yesterday and you know it. And that time travel thing was just a big mess that can't completely be blamed on Dora. Tricia and Pen had stopped using their powers." Patience wiggled up into a sitting position.

"Why can't you just tell us everything that you've been doing?" HJ asked.

"I need you two to help me, I can't take care of everything and everyone." Chris sighed.

"If you want us to help, you should tell us everything." HJ snapped.

"Have you told Wyatt? Or did Wyatt figure it out while he was pretending to be you, badly may I add." Patience leaned forward.

"You're the white lighter, I need you to pay attention to our siblings." Chris punched HJ in the shoulder as he walked across the living room of the loft, towards Patience. "What has got you distracted?"

"I do have a charge." HJ smiled triumphantly.

"I have a charge! I'm a real white lighter now." Chris mocked.

"What has you in such an uppity mood? Did mommy take away the car again?" HJ retaliated against his older cousin.

"Uppity? Seriously?" Patience rolled her eyes. "Guys, I wanted to take a nap."

"How are you feeling?" Chris asked as he sat down on the couch and reached out with the back of his hand to feel the girl's forehead.

"I feel fine." Patience smacked his hand away.

"Your eyes are orange." Chris let his hand fall to under her chin, where he locked his index finger and thumb against her jaw.

"HJ is in love with his charge." Patience confessed suddenly.

"Patience!" HJ shouted.

"You're what?" Chris groaned.

"Please don't start." HJ shook his head.

"There are a lot of things coming, a dark storm brewing. I need you two to be focused and well." Chris sighed leaning back against the couch.

"Did your Oracle Witch tell you that?" Patience crossed her arms bitterly.

"Patience, I'm tolerating of your delinquent the least you could do is pretend to like my girl." Chris rolled his eyes.

"You don't love her." Patience retorted so confidently and so quickly that she surprised even herself. She jumped back and covered her mouth with one of her hands worried about what else she might let slip.

"What?" Chris asked her blinking.

"Pat," HJ begged.

"You don't." Patience repeated through her own hand. "You don't love her and she doesn't love you. Yes, I'm right that's why I don't like her…"

"Patience," HJ stamped his foot onto the ground. Chris stared at his cousin, confused and bewildered by her outburst. Patience stared at Chris and her eyes glowed with a royal red that exploded from the orange of only moments ago. Chris broke eye contact first, his green eyes watering from the explosion of emotion teeming from Patience's eyes.

"I need you two," Chris finally broke the silence as he stood up from the couch. "To be vigilant, I don't know what Nemod is up to exactly but he collected blood from Mels, Wyatt and myself. I need you two to make sure he doesn't get anyone else."

"And what are you going to be doing?" Patience asked resentfully.

"Finding out what Nemod is up to," Chris smiled.

"He's trying to become the new source, don't we already know that?" HJ yawned.

"I've never heard of a source needing our blood to rise to power, have you?" Chris asked his younger cousin.

"We've never been alive for a source to rise to power before." HJ frowned.

"Exactly so why don't you let me figure out what Nemod is up to and you try to keep your nose clean and your blood out of the hands of demons?" Chris smacked the back of HJ's head while ignoring Patience. Patience pulled up the quilt to sit beneath her chin as she stared at Chris, studying his nonchalant facial expressions and calm demeanor.

"Patience," Chris sighed as he turned to face her intent stare. "Sleep and fluids, feel better." At the last word of his suggestion the young man orbed away.

"He's hiding so many things." Patience yawned.

"He usually is," HJ nodded grabbing the remote. "He usually is."

Back at George Washington High School there was only one Halliwell cousin on campus, a strange occurrence on a campus that usually housed at least three Halliwells on any given day. Dora was asleep in the back row of her chemistry class, hiding beneath her hood. Her orange fingernails peeked out from underneath her black sweatshirt, twitching and scratching against the desk in a desperate motion.

_Pandora was climbing up a dark and dangerous rock face. She dug her fingernails deep into the crevices of the stones as her tennis shoe slipped off another rock. Sweat was dripping down her face and her breathing was more like panting, but nothing was stopping her escalation up the wall. There was no peak and no base to the climb, Dora was just climbing from darkness to darkness until she lost her footing completely and started falling. _

_ A jolt of scenery slammed Dora into a pile of trashcans with a clang. Dora laid on the cement ground with her arms and legs stretched out as rain started to fall on her face. The alleyway was different than her usual falling dream, but it was empty and quiet and peaceful. Until the dream started to populate, first with the sounds of the light traffic in the distance and the murmur of the city and last with the loudness of a fight. Dora lifted her head to see a man wolf charged into a dumpster. The action sparked movement from Dora, who lifted her body from the ground using her elbows. Her eyes caught sight of two familiar girls, a braided mass of black hair and light brown hair with a wave. _

_ "Pandora?" Patricia's voice rang like a gong pausing all the other action of the dream. _

_ "Patricia?" Dora asked carefully. The image of her twin was solid, almost real, but it was hard for the dreamer to remember what her sister looked like. The twins had never been apart for longer than a day and even though they had stopped getting along at the age of 12, their constant bickering was their constant support. _

_ "Dora!" Tricia ran from her spot and threw her arms around her sister. Penelope stood just as frozen as the man wolf and it occurred to Dora that this dream was different as the familiar embrace of her sister hit her. _

_ "Patricia?" Dora choked. "I'm dreaming…" _

_ "A vision of the past, maybe?" Tricia suggested cryptically. _

_ "I didn't mean to send you to 1992, is it just awful?" Dora started crying. Tricia slipped her fingers along Dora's arms until the sisters were just holding hands. _

_ "No. It's not awful, magic happens for a reason." Tricia smiled softly. _

_ "Now I know I'm dreaming you." Dora choked back on a new sob. _

_ "Look, pay attention to me for a second flames." Tricia shook her sister's shoulders. The use of a childhood nickname made Dora blink rapidly, confused. _

_ "I don't know how much longer I can make this last. I need you to find out everything you can about werewolves." Tricia started to fade. _

_ "Werewolves?" Dora repeated. _

_ "Get back into my dream." Tricia smiled. _

_ "What if I can't?" Dora cried. _

_ "You'll figure it out." Tricia disappeared. Pandora started falling again in the darkness, tears still streaming down her face until a bell rang. _

"Werewolves." Pandora snapped her neck up to see the students filing out of the room.

"Dreaming about Wolf Bite?" Someone snickered.

"No," Pandora snapped jumping up and collecting her books.

"Who even reads that trash?" She added pulling out her cell phone gliding her thumb over the keys so quickly it was like magic.

"The day I need a stupid magical cousin," She muttered stepping into the crowded hallway.

A phone tucked into a towel on the beach beeped loudly, but Melinda didn't hear it through the music jamming through her headphones. Melinda sat on the beach, the same beach that had been the frequent hang out of her Aunt Prue. The future could have been a mirror into the past with the black hair snapping in the wind and the old quilt grandma Penny had made for Patty was wrapped around Melinda's shoulders. Even Prue's old camera sat at Melinda's feet, ready to be used.

Melinda, much like her cousins Patience and Henry, had taken a hiatus day from the hardships of high school life. She had spent the night before being lectured, belittled, begrudged and sheltered by her mother, father and each brother. Being the youngest of Piper's children had never been easy and on occasion Melinda reacted by escaping the normal way of taking a bus or hitching a ride to the nearest beach. The use of normal, non-magical transportation was a necessity for the only non-orbing sibling but also the best way to stay off of her oldest brother's radar. Melinda was bopping her head to the music never noticing the puff of smoke that shimmered into a tall, lean young man.

The headphones were yanked out of Melinda's ears, as the boy's lips were hovering over her right ear.

"You're brother would be so disappointed." The familiar voice whispered. A shiver of fear shook Melinda's body for a nanosecond before she twisted her wrist up to freeze the person behind her. But the boy's foot kicked her hand before the movement was out and Melinda caught sight of the familiar beautiful face and tousled black hair.

"Javin?" Melinda fell back onto the quilt, looking up at the oldest young looking demon she knew. Javin was sporting a pair of red skater shorts and a plain white t-shirt, a pair of black sunglasses hiding his black eyes carefully as he laughed and held out his hand to the girl.

"You know that there is a rising source of all evil on the loose?" Javin smiled deviously.

"That's what everyone keeps saying." Melinda grumbled crossing her arms and getting defensive.

"I heard you were in said rising demon yesterday." Javin sat next to her on the sand, his hands folding over his knees.

"Did you come to check up on me?" Melinda asked scathingly.

"I would have heard if you were dead." Javin stated without a telling tone. They sat in complete silence, watching the waves crash angrily against the shore as if the ocean was speaking their unvoiced emotions. As Melinda tugged on her quilt again, she finally whispered.

"You don't come to see me often." She whispered.

"I'm a demon, you're a witch." Javin nodded. "Not suppose to be friends."

"But we are…" Melinda insisted.

"Yes, I suppose we are. Why did you go into the underworld after Nemod yesterday?" Javin asked careful not to look at her and not let his worry or angry shine.

"Chris and Wyatt were in trouble." Melinda responded.

"You went alone." Javin stated.

"There was a plan…" Melinda started.

"Nemod has wanted you dead since before you were born, do you understand?" Javin asked finally turning his head, pushing up his sunglasses to make sure the full intent of his glare wasn't lost upon a stubborn Halliwell.

"What are you doing here?" Melinda asked him.

"Wyatt might not be able to track you using magic, but I can track your rebellion." Javin sighed truthfully. Melinda leaned forward quickly and without warning kissed the boy sitting in front of her.

"Stay Alive." Was the whispered lament that Melinda heard as she opened her eyes to find herself sitting in the back of her English class, just a row away from Patricia's empty chair.

"Damn it." Melinda cursed under her breath searching out the window to see Javin standing under a tree, waving at her with a smile on his face before disappearing. As the lecture about the homework from the evening before started, Melinda delicately pulled out her phone and effortlessly typed a message to her bothersome meddling older brother.

"I'm on Wyatt's team." She sent her brother Chris a clear message, if he was going to meddle to keep her protected it was only fair for her to meddle to keep him protected.

Chris smiled and rolled his eyes as he typed a response to his younger sister and weaved through the crowd of magic school students eating lunch. Slipping his phone back into his back pocket, he expertly slipped his arm around the dainty waist of Verity Vanguard and grabbed an apple from the counter. Chris rested his chin playfully on Verity's shoulder as he took a bite from his apple.

"What are you doing?" Hissed Verity as she pushed him off her shoulder.

"Everyone knows now, why don't we take advantage of it?" Chris winked at her as he grabbed the young woman's tray of food.

"Months of no, we can't tell anyone. My mom and my brother won't like it…" Verity snarled at him trying to pull her food out of his tight grip.

"Mad at me?" Chris asked as he gently guided her to the nearest empty table, maintaining the tray far enough away that she couldn't grab it back.

"Furious. I'm furious at you. And no, that stupid half smile on your handsome face won't in anyway make me less so." Verity snapped at him as she sat in the chair he pulled out.

"I know, I've been the worst boyfriend ever lately…" Chris sighed.

_Don't apologize, just kiss her. _A voice chided at Chris. Chris frowned confused by the words, by the thoughts that weren't his swimming around in his head.

"Three dates, you've stood me up in the last two weeks. Are you sure you even want to date me anymore? Or am I just some kind of trophy for you?" Verity glared at him. Chris acted upon the advice in his head and planted a kiss on Verity that garnered the attention of the entire lunchroom. A strong forced cough made Chris let go of Verity, kicking back in his chair as Verity blushed furiously and focused on the salad in front of her.

"Dad," Chris nodded at Leo Wyatt standing behind him.

"Miss Vanguard, I expect my teachers to act with a sense of propriety as an example for the students." Leo sighed.

"Yes sir, I understand." Verity muttered back to the headmaster.

"Christopher," Leo tilted his head, indicating to his son to follow him. Chris winked at Verity and bent down as he stood dismissing the grunt coming from his father.

"I'll keep apologizing later." Chris promised before his father tugged at his elbow pulling him out of the lunchroom, in a familiar scene to all the students. Father and son headed down the endless hallway not speaking until the office door lock clicked.

"There are school rules that apply not only to the students, but to the teachers as well. You can not act like a hormonal teenager with a girl on the grounds of the school, in such a disregard for the rules." Leo chastised as he took off his school robe.

"That's really why you wanted me in here, to talk about the rules of relationships among the staff?" Chris grabbed one of the large books from a stack off the desk.

"Sometimes I think we should have had more boundaries with you." Leo laughed to himself as he sat down behind his desk.

"Because I didn't spend enough of my teen years grounded?" Chris sighed. Leo watched as his middle son wandered around his large office avoiding eye contact and conversation. Leo was a patient man and so he waited quietly watching Chris brew with passive aggression of avoiding conversation but not just out right leaving the office. After what seemed like an eternity to the young man but in reality had only been minutes, Chris snapped his attention up to his father and crossed his arms surrendering.

"You called me in here dad," Chris finally sighed. Leo shot his son a look, weary of the boy's tone as his eyebrow shot up. Chris was standing on the other side of the office and Leo pointed at the chair in front of his desk with his eyes. Chris rolled his eyes but dragged himself across the room and kicked out the chair before plopping himself down.

"Better?" Chris asked sarcastically.

"Yes son, it is." Leo nodded calmly. Chris tilted back in his chair already aggravated by his father's calm and knowing tone.

"So Dad?" Chris prompted again

"Chris, can you please stop fidgeting." Leo asked quietly and Chris swung his head back up and stared at his father with a bored expression.

"What is this about dad?" Chris smiled innocently.

"Why don't you tell me what this is about? No smart ass responses, no deflection, I want answers." Leo stared right through his son. Chris shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to match his father's intent stare but failing miserably.

"Dad, I don't know what answer you're looking for here…" Chris sighed slowly.

"I know you, I know better than you even know yourself. The way you've been acting is familiar to me…" Leo started.

"You and mom and the aunts keep saying that, you know that you can't hold me accountable for a past self from an alternate universe that I never existed in." Chris snapped rubbing his fingers against the bridge of his nose in frustration.

"Alternate selves have some of the same qualities as the real person. That Chris…"

"The one that hated you for ignoring him his entire life?" Chris asked snidely.

"I would have hope you grew out of this deflecting habit of yours," Leo rolled his eyes. "That Chris, he acted this way. This running around with secrets, wearing himself out, dealing with questioning characters all for something he was hiding. But you see the thing was, what he was hiding was something bad that happened to his brother, to his family. So what I figure is that there is something that you've been hiding, something that you know happens to someone in our family that you're trying to hero it out…" Leo explained.

"How do you know that I haven't evolved past that other self? Isn't that possible dad, that you have me read all wrong?" Chris taunted his father annoyed that his parents had secret knowledge about him. It seemed a cruel joke of the universe that his parents were equip with knowledge of how to read his habits without him being able to mimic his past selves way of hiding from his parents.

"It can't be that you've been lying about being in school," Leo tapped at his desk with a pen. Chris jumped forward, surprised to hear the news of one of his many secrets be stated so nonchalantly.

"Does mom know?" Chris asked immediately.

"No, Coop figured it out back in September and let me know. I've been waiting, assuming you had a good reason." Leo glanced up at Chris, now fully attentive with his shoulders tensed up to his ears.

"I didn't mean to be lying to you that whole time, its just mom is just, and well now…" Chris stuttered out his words.

"I don't need you to tell me about that until you're ready, but just so you know I'm not please about it and I do expect you to go back to school." It was Leo's turn to cross his arms, in a mirror image of both his sons' habits.

"Dad, I have to meet Wyatt." Chris put his hands on his knees, ready to orb himself away.

"Christopher," Leo sighed.

"Maybe I've evolved Dad." Chris smiled before he orbed out of the office without more argument.

"Or maybe, you are carrying the burden of something terrible by yourself again." Leo sighed staring at a picture of his three children sitting on his desk carefully examining their smiles before pulling out a stack of papers to grade.

Dora stood against her locker, blowing the blue bangs out of her eyes as he tapped her foot impatiently. Students were rushing passed her, shouting afternoon plans and bantering about homework assignments. Glancing down at a brightly colored watch on her wrist, Dora kicked out her foot at the exact moment that her cousin stepped around the corner.

Melinda barely leaned forward before she was standing upright and on the opposite side of Dora, glaring at her.

"Can you freeze faster now too? I didn't even see that," Dora whistled impressed.

"What is your deal? I could have face planted into this disgusting floor…" Melinda snapped.

"With your powers? I don't think so…" Dora rolled her eyes as she kicked off from her locker.

"I shouldn't be using my powers in broad daylight…" Melinda started.

"Blah, blah, blah. You're starting to sound like your brothers." Dora smiled mischievously.

"Bite your tongue." Melinda snarled a bit as she kept pace with Dora as they exited the busy hallway.

"Where were you earlier? I didn't think you were going to show up today, really appreciated being ignored when I called…" Dora sighed.

"I'm here against my will and ignoring you is my best bet for staying out of harms way, isn't it now?"

"That underworld deal was just as much your idea as it was mine, that perfection-not-possibly-my-fault gene must be aunt Piper's…." Dora scuffed.

"Is there a reason you tried to kill me?" Melinda finally asked.

"Oh yeah, dramatics and all. I didn't try to kill you! You of all people should remember what that feels like. What was it just like yesterday that you almost died? A face plant into a high school hallway, hardly counts as a near-death experience for a Halliwell. If you were a Smith or a Johnson, maybe even a Mitchell…" Dora ranted for a few seconds.

Melinda crossed her arms defensively and pressed her lips into a thin line before shooting out in front of Dora in the blink of an eye.

"You're trying my patience." Melinda spat at Dora, as she blocked her path from anymore walking.

"I saw my sister today." Dora retorted back.

"What?" Melinda's anger melted from her features as she automatically glanced around the parking lot looking for Patricia Mitchell's familiar face.

"In a vision dream, I guess. I saw her. She spoke right to me…" Dora explained.

"When is she coming back? Why hasn't she come back? What's going on?" Melinda demanded thoughts not formulating into words fast enough.

"I don't know." Dora whispered.

"We can figure it out?" Melinda prompted carefully seeing the shadow of worry cross over Dora's hazel eyes.

"She said something about werewolves," Dora pressed her orange fingers tightly around the bridge of her nose.

"Werewolves?" Melinda questioned. The frightened look in Dora's eyes made Melinda react in a way that she had learned from her parents and brothers. "Let's get to magic school, I think we'll have better luck researching werewolves with more resources. As soon as you can remember everything that happened in your dream vision, then we try to figure out how to get into the past or a message to Tricia and Pen." Melinda clapped her hands together just as HJ pulled up in his beat-up old van.

"We have to go to magic school." Melinda announced jumping into the car.

The cramp space of Wyatt's dorm room was emphasized heavily as Bianca smacked the broad tanned shoulder of the oldest Halliwell as she pushed off his twin bed. "Damn it Bianca," Wyatt grumbled as he tripped over his own pile of clothing and stumbled into the wall behind him. Bianca didn't let up though as she charged against him, tipping down her sword in an expert fashion that threatened malicious intent. Wyatt's instinct kicked in as his force field projected off his body and shielded his flesh from the dangerous tip of sharpened metal. Bianca bounced back into the desk knocking down a stack of textbooks with a loud crash.

"At least your instincts aren't as slow as your swing," Bianca taunted as she spun the hilt of her sword around her index finger on one hand and used her free hand to push back a loose strand of hair.

"Can I try yet?" Chris whined impatiently.

"No!" Bianca and Wyatt snapped in unison as their swords clashed once again. Chris grouchily pulled a bag of chips off of the end of the bed as he settled into the corner of the bed where two sides of the room met. Chris had appeared minutes before the sword lesson started in Wyatt's dorm insisting that if his brother was training in combat, it was clearly high time that Chris start learning the same skills. Wyatt was a little less than pleased at the intrusion but there was no way to convince his stubborn little brother to evaporate back to San Francisco.

"I told you to go home Chris," Wyatt grunted as he pushed Bianca into the corner of the room.

"I'm having enough trouble teaching one brother how to properly sword fight…" Bianca huffed as she jabbed her knee into Wyatt's thigh, sending the tall boy into the floor. "I do not need two headaches."

"I'm a better learner than my big brother, ask any of our teachers." Chris argued shoving chips into his open mouth.

"None of his teachers would even remember him, he spent far too much time in detention and not in class…" Wyatt grumbled as he circled around Bianca carefully avoiding all the items on the ground.

"If you're going to distract your brother," Bianca flipped around and held the tip of her sword against Chris throat.

"Bianca," Wyatt's voice was strained and warning. Bianca though didn't remove her eyes from Chris' face, as she playfully poked at his pale skin with the glittering metal. Chris was shocked for only a second by the girl's forcefulness before he held out his hand and her sword flew out of her hand and hovered over her heart. Chris had dropped the bag of chips and his own eyes flashed with a concentration that had been absent minutes before.

"Chris," Wyatt sighed.

"You might just have potential yet reckless little brother," Bianca smiled brightly before twisted her wrist and causing Chris to lose his powerful hold over the sword.

"But it's not your turn. So sit, watch and shut up." Bianca commanded turning her attention back to Wyatt. Wyatt was peeling his damping shirt from his torso as Bianca turned back to him and the light of the sun was dimming. Chris let out an audible sigh as he made himself comfortable in the corner of the bed.

It was hours later, after a few battles of might and metal before Bianca finally put down her weapon and decided it was enough. Wyatt was dripping in sweat that he effortless wiped off with one of his dirty shirts.

"Did we really need to do that for two hours?" Wyatt groaned as he pressed his fingers against a bruise that was attempting to form on his shoulder.

"Nemod is not going to give you breaks." Bianca shrugged tugging her hair up into a ponytail. She snapped her fingers and the two long swords turned back into tiny plastic swords that clashed onto the ground softly. Wyatt flipped on the light switch and looked over to his unusually quiet little brother.

"Wonderful," Wyatt sighed. Bianca followed the gaze of the blue eyes to find Chris curled under the blanket of Wyatt's bed completely asleep.

"Does he do that often?" Bianca laughed.

"No, actually. Chris has never been a good sleeper, use to spend half the night keeping me awake when we shared a room." Wyatt started picking up shirts and smelling them to check their cleanliness.

"So today is just an off day for the kid?" Bianca asked.

"My guess, he hasn't slept since before the sun rose this morning. Actually I would be surprised if he has slept more than 12 hours in the last three days." Wyatt explained as he finally found a shirt that was clean enough to pull on.

"You'll let him sleep then?" Bianca asked.

"Yeah, its good for him sometimes." Wyatt smiled as he yawned.

"Until tomorrow then?" Bianca stood on her toes to kiss Wyatt on the cheek before she ducked out of the dorm room. Wyatt sighed loudly as he studied his brother's slump body on his bed for a second before walking over to snap up the half eaten bag of chips. Wyatt pulled out a handful and started munching as he looked around his mess of a room trying to make decisions about where to sleep and whether or not to take a shower and leave his brother alone. Scrunching up his nose, Wyatt waved his hands over the bed and a set of crystals appeared around his sleeping brother setting a protective cage that not only would keep anything out but also kept Chris in while Wyatt found food and cleaned up.

"Sleep well Chris," Wyatt whispered, moving Chris down on the bed with his magic careful not to wake him before leaving the room.

_Chris was stalking around the empty center room of Melinda Warren's cabin in the dark. No lights were on as just the light from a quarter moon shone through the windows, glistening eerily off of Chris pale skin. There was nothing on the walls and cobwebs were stretching across the doorways and corners of the little cabin but still Chris was searching. _

_ "When are you going to tell him?" The familiar voice from earlier demanded. Chris spun around searching for the source of the voice that wasn't his own, or any of his familiar family members or friends but no one was in the cabin. Until an image flickered into existence in the path of the moonlight, a young man as tall as Chris, possibly taller with dark hair and a familiar face. _

_ "When?" The young man asked. _

_ "Who are you?" Chris asked. _

_ "We only have a bit of time before the nigt-mare falls into your dreams because you and your brother seem to have some bizarre belief that these nigt-mares are helping you resolve some of your issues. For being charmed and growing up having semblances of a normal life, you two are severely screwed up you know that right?" _

_ "Who are you and how do you know my brother?" Chris demanded, keeping his distance from this new character in his dream fearing that the nigt-mares had descended with a new trick. _

_ "Maybe we can talk about who I am a different time. How many parts are you still missing, you keep that part even secret from yourself and its strange really. Such a neurotic little creature you are…" The young man smiled a flicker of an expression that Chris recognized so powerfully that he closed his eyes trying to recall the memory. _

_ "You remind me of someone…" Chris started. _

_ "More than someone actually." The young man sighed knowing that Chris, in his stubborn ways would be less likely to talk than Wyatt had been. _

_ "But…" Chris started. _

_ "Too late," The voice faded away with the cabin itself as Chris was transported to another dark memory, another dark moment that the nigt-mares carried him to without mercy. _

Wyatt walked back into his dorm room to find Chris struggling in his sleep. Wyatt muttered some curse about the nigt-mares he was sure were plaguing his younger brother as he removed the crystals and conjured a cot next to his own bed with a dream catcher sitting on top of it.

"One night of a good night's sleep, might be good for both of us. Hopefully this will help you." Wyatt whispered as he tied the ancient ornament between his bed and the cot.

**October 20, 2023 **

Patience, HJ, Melinda and Dora all sat in different corners of a empty room of magic school, silently flipping through books.

"You made sure to re-route the truant calls into your phone?" Patience asked HJ for the hundredth time that afternoon.

"Yes, Patience." HJ gritted his teeth impatiently.

"Look, I'm just grounded forever already. I would seriously appreciate not having another notch to my sentence." Patience explained.

"We're all grounded forever…" Dora scribbled a note down on a post-it.

"You both didn't have to help." Melinda retorted.

"My sister is stuck in the past." Patience explained slowly in a condensing manner. "When exactly are you going to give up this hostility towards me, Mels?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Melinda snapped.

"Patience," HJ warned. The animosity between Patience and Melinda was a well-established invisible topic among the cousins. Melinda held resentment towards Patience, for the attention that Chris gave her ever since the girls were toddlers. Patience baited her younger cousin's insecurities never understanding why Melinda would compare her brother's affection for a sister to his affection for a cousin. The reality of the matter was that Chris felt a connection to Patience, a bond much like a sibling bond but the difference being that Patience was a familiar reckless powerful soul that though on occasion objecting to Chris' tactics was blindly supportive. He held the oldest cupid to a high esteem, having the most in common with her than any of his other cousins and even than his very siblings. But it was nothing like his protective and caring nature towards Melinda, the only one that didn't see the difference was his youngest sister.

"Why are you even here? Trying to prove something to your brothers? Didn't you prove your less than desirable magical abilities just two days ago?" Patience taunted.

"Patience," Dora groaned.

"Not everyone has the amorality to get a power boast from being a two-bit whore." Melinda spat.

"At least I've never tried to get into a demon's pants." Patience snarled back jumping from her spot on the ground. Melinda was already teeming enough to move in a whirlwind to be just centimeter away from Patience's blood red eyes.

"My sister is stuck in the past and being tracked by a werewolf!" Dora shouted at her cousins furiously.

"And so is your sister." HJ whispered as he placed his hand on Patience's shoulder.

"Maybe we should just call in Chris to help," Patience stated maliciously.

"Patience, how's Dervin doing?" Melinda jibbed at her cousin. Patience lost the color from her face and started swaying suddenly, confused and lost but the statement.

"Melinda that's enough." HJ whispered harshly as he caught Patience in a half faint. "I have half a mind to tell your brother…"

A set of orbs started swirling around the air of the high ceiling before settling right behind Melinda.

"Tell her brother what exactly?" Chris demanded as his hand materialized over his youngest sibling's shoulders.

"Chris," Dora squeaked slamming her research book closed.

"This truancy thing is becoming a habit with all of you that I'm not entirely sure I should keep ignoring." Chris frowned at HJ in particular, who was carefully trying to shake Patience out of her trance.

"What are you here for Patience?" Melinda tried to shrug his hand from her shoulders. Chris kept his hold on her though tightly, in a familiar grasp to Wyatt with him.

"Why don't you tell me what's going on here sis," Chris asked patiently as he spun her around.

"Are you going to let me help?" Melinda squinted her eyes at him suspiciously through strands of her black hair.

"It seems to me that I'm here to help you, this isn't my party." Chris shrugged as he studied the room covered in stacks of research materials. As the middle sibling, negotiating skills hadn't been completely lost upon Chris especially when it came to Melinda. She was the little princess in his family, there was very little she wasn't use to getting her way. Her brothers had successfully kept her from the magical for the last 16 years, but the boys knew she was like a screaming kettle reaching a boiling point.

"Patricia came to me in my dream yesterday." Dora sputtered. Chris eyebrows shot up and he could fell his annoyance at the information being kept from him sparking.

_Doesn't feel good when you're the one their keeping secrets from, does it? _The familiar voice from his dream taunted in his head. Chris twitched slightly but bite his bottom lip to keep from speaking. He nodded at Dora to continue her explanation.

"She asked me to find out about werewolves. She needed help. She didn't say much else but I think, well I'm hoping, that I can contact her once we have some more information." Dora explained.

"So we're doing the research." HJ explained.

"And Dora might be able to transmit enough of it to keep them safe until we figure out how to bring them home." Melinda finished. Chris swallowed and nodded understanding the semblance of the non-plan unfolding in front of him.

"Why didn't you call Wyatt and I?" He asked.

"Wars can't be fought by all soldiers on every front." Melinda shrugged. Chris' eyes snapped to stare at her, seeing her as the young woman she was for the first time instead of as his younger sister.

"Malevolence in the ranks causes a dissention far riskier to our cause," Chris spouted back wisdom to his sister, not breaking his eye contact with her for a second.

"You're one to talk." Melinda's lip curled into a winning smile.

"I am not malevolent to anyone, least of you Melinda Prudence. You, on the other hand, will apologize to Patience." It was no longer a suggestion or a push in the right direction Chris was directly ordering his younger sister to make amends. Melinda crossed her arms resentful of the order, of the underlying threat of being treated like a bratty little sister.

"She doesn't have to apologize for her feelings Chris," Patience finally spoke up, having shaken out of her trance state of despair.

"She does when she's wrong. She wants me to treat her like an grown up, go on and act like one." Chris pushed Melinda forward forcefully.

"I'm just trying to help," Melinda grumbled.

"I know, let's just get back to work huh?" Patience winked at her as she turned back to her books.

"I have to teach a class and call Wyatt about this development. When I come back I expect you all to have enough information to keep Pen and Pat safe, Wyatt and I will work on getting them back from the past." Chris nodded at the group before walking out of the room.

"Anyone else starting to feel that he's getting a bit to bossy?" Dora questioned.

"Sadly, I think it's just the beginning." Melinda sighed as she held her hand over a book and magically flipped the pages as her annoyance fueled her powers.


	14. Halfway Gone

**Halfway Gone **

_Halfway Gone, Lifehouse _

**October 20, 2023 **

"Time is not as fluid and stationary as most people like to think," A young man cracked an egg over a stone bowl explained to Melinda, Patience, HJ and Dora. The four cousins had moved into one of the many hidden quarters of the endless hallway, a place where the mystery magical medicines practiced ancient arts.

"Are you sure this is safe Ravi?" HJ asked carefully eyeing the dark brew that the unknown boy was smashing with his fingertips.

"Just because you don't understand the magic does not make it dangerous." Ravi smiled patiently. The students of magic school didn't often mingle with the mystery magic students, unless they were seeking a spirit journey or had a problem they were unable to surpass. The fact that the unfathomably powerful charmed children, the very royalty of the school, were seeking the mysteries help had made Ravi teem with excitement as he was zealous to be helpful.

"So what do I have to do exactly?" Dora asked embarrassed. Pandora had been trying to fall asleep and contact her sister for most of the late afternoon with no success. Chris had suggested they find one of the mystery students before Wyatt and him headed down to hawk information from a demon bar.

"This is my active magic, you are the subject in this. So truthfully you do nothing, except for lie down here…" Ravi pointed to the rectangle draw out of dirt near his toes.

"Right. And what is it that you are going to do again?" Dora squeaked as her fingertips started to spark.

"Deep breath sis," HJ patted her on the shoulder as his eyes focused on the magical hiccup.

"No harm will come to you, Pandora was a character that always had hope." Ravi winked at her as he dumped the contents of his bowl onto the drip rectangle.

"This Pandora has had a bad run as of late Ravi." HJ whispered.

"Yes, I sensed that." Ravi nodded.

"Or you've heard that. The way gossip spreads at this school, you'd think it was a brush fire." Patience snapped as she chewed at one of her fingernails.

"Your essence isn't breathing…" Ravi frowned as his pale yellow eyes focused on the cupid.

"Let's focus on one bad thing at a time." HJ commented in a panic as he shook his head.

"Yes… Pandora." Ravi ushered Dora over to the line in the dirt and effortlessly guided her to lie down.

"Call me Dora," Dora yawned as Ravi pressed his fingers against her forehead.

"Remember, to ask where we should appear and what they've been telling the family in the past." Patience reminded.

"Werewolves are only present for one more night in the past." Melinda nodded.

"Don't get distracted." HJ warned before Dora closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

_Dora appeared on the empty campus of her old junior high school. The world appeared frozen, quiet and dusty as if abandoned so long ago that it was itching for a revival of some sort. She stepped through the layer of dust, leaving imprints of the bottom of her shoes unsure if she had stumbled onto someone else's dream or had simply fallen into her own. _

_ As snow started falling from the fluorescent lights of above and the sound of materials freezing over began echoing off the lockers Dora gasped but started running. Bursting into the performing arts theater, a place even Dora rarely thought about these days, she caught sight of Tricia standing proudly on the stage shooting icicles out of her palms at a shadowy figure of a boy, a boy demon. _

_ "Patricia?" Dora stood shocked. The power of the snowstorm, the power that was glowing from her twin was unfamiliar and devastatingly haunting. Having spent more time in other's dreams as of late, Dora understood that dream powers were a reflection of the power that you controlled and the potential of your magical essence. _

_ "Dora?" Tricia hands fell and the dream disintegrated quickly. The twins were left standing in a dark black void of thoughtless dream. _

_ "What are you wearing?" Dora giggled as she pointed at the pale blue and yellow button up dress that Tricia was sporting. Tricia stared down at her attire and laughed. _

_ "This is what I'm wearing, I must be asleep in class." She shrugged. _

_ "Learning about the Berlin Wall?" Dora teased. _

_ "Who knows, I'm asleep. Which is fortunate for you. What did you find out?" Tricia asked seriously. Both twins knew that the dream they were sharing could end as easily as it had started, a sound or sharp movement would wake one of them without notice. _

_ "One more night of Werewolves. Wyatt and Chris know that you contacted me, they are in the underworld right now trying to discover if the werewolf was sent from the future by one of our many enemies. We're planning on sending one of us into the past to help you two fight and then to bring you back. Chris apparently knows a spell…" Dora rushed through her information. _

_ "Of course, he would know a spell." Tricia sighed. "But Dora, it goes after half-breeds." _

_ "Yes, we read that." Dora nodded. They stood silent for a blink of an eye. _

_ "Where should we meet you in the past?" Dora asked. _

_ "The attic, safest place. Try to get Chris to set it to be back by night fall tonight, five minutes after dark." Tricia directed. _

_ "How are we suppose to…?" Dora began the question. _

_ "Seriously? You're in 2030. Use a computer, access a calendar and appreciate the ability to access the world of information on your phone." Tricia retorted scathingly. The two stood still and quiet for the blink of an eye. _

_ "I miss you." They said in unison before… _

Dora gasped as if pulling out of a deep pool of water, clutching at her wrist where a tiny but durable little thread held a pedant from her sister Tricia.

"Are you ok?" HJ was bent down, holding his hands on his knees. But before Dora could answer Patience had burst into hysterics and Melinda had collapsed into a vision.

"My," Ravi choked out before throwing some dust into the air that as it settled calm Dora, silence Patience and revived Melinda. But the power that had burst from the three girls had sent an alarm as Coop magically appeared out of the shimmer of his heart and Paige came bursting into the room.

"Patience," Coop reacted to his oldest daughter immediately ducking down to lift her into his arms as if she was nothing more than an infant.

"Henry, Pandora, Melinda are you all well?" Paige questioned looking flustered and exhausted. Both Coop and Paige were dressed in the traditional robes of the school, signaling to their children that they had been teaching somewhere on site.

"Yes mom, we're fine." HJ nodded and gave his mother a reassuring smile. Melinda was holding her head with both hands and trying to steady her own heartbeat as her phone started to shriek.

"Sir," Ravi quietly tried to get Coop's attention. But Coop was humming to the scared little girl in his arms, trying to soothe her back into the calm composed infuriating teenager she usually was.

"What are you doing here?" Paige asked suspiciously looking at her wristwatch.

"Mum, might we have this little discourse somewhere that doesn't smell like the inside of a spice cabinet, no offense Ravi?" HJ asked pinching his nose to emphasis his point.

"Sir, her essence isn't breathing." Ravi ignored HJ and insisted to Coop.

"No, I suppose it wouldn't be." Coop retorted in annoyance.

"But sir, I don't know if you understand…" Ravi insisted.

"I think I do." Coop growled as he hearted away from the bowels of magic school without another word.

"All right, let's go do some explaining to Leo while mommy finishes teaching her magical traditions class." Paige waved her children and niece away before disappearing herself.

"The sky was dark and gloomy, the air was damp and raw, and the streets were wet and sloppy…" Ravi started whispered as he began mediation.

"…The smoke hung sluggishly above the chimmey-tops as if it lacked the courage to rise, and the rain came slowly and doggedly down, as if it had not even the spirit to pour." Bianca lazily read out loud from large sofa chair in the corner of the student union building.

"B, what are you even reading?" Chris demanded smacking his head into the window behind his head. The student union on campus was not that busy with only a few students scattered about at different tables, but it was busy enough to ensure that Chris didn't make a scene.

"The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens." Bianca flashed him a smile.

"Explain to me again why I shouldn't just orb to magic school?"

"Your brother asked you to sit with me while he was in class, and you're too much of a gentleman to leave a lady." Bianca winked at him.

"And you agreed to baby sit me because?" Chris leaned forward, intensely focused on the woman in front of him. Bianca fiddled with one of the buttons on her cardigan, before she leaned over the arm of the chair she was seated in placing her book face down on the edge of it.

"I remember you sometimes, you know." Bianca whispered without looking into the intense green eyes.

"Because you tried to kill me?" Chris asked resentfully.

"No because we were engaged." Bianca sighed sadly. She looked at him again, not wanting to believe that his green eyes could get anymore intense but the boy in front of her had taken on the characteristics of a statue.

"I didn't think anyone but me…" Chris stuttered finally drawing back into his own seat and looking away.

"It started when I saw you again, the night I was going to kill you." Bianca explained.

"Is that why you didn't?" Chris asked now focusing on the blond co-ed sitting nearest to the door.

"I couldn't." Bianca nodded. The two were silent as Bianca sipped at her coffee and Chris tugged at a loose thread in his washed out red shirt.

"Do you remember the time travel spell?" Chris asked her curiously, turning back his intense gaze on her.

"The one that we used to get you back in time in the manor, that was a museum?" Bianca asked with such accuracy, Chris wondered if maybe the woman in front of him was remembering more than she was letting on.

"I don't know…" He responded confused.

"Yes." Bianca shrugged not explaining or apologizing from her memories of an alternate life.

"I think that's the spell that is the best option for traveling back to get my cousins." Chris explained. "But, I don't remember it well and…"

"And?" Bianca prompted noticing how Chris had shoved his hands deep into his pockets and his shoulders had tensed up, he was nervous.

"Wyatt won't let me time travel." Chris explained.

"Yes, that seems to be a sore subject with you." Bianca nodded carefully.

"But that spell, we created that spell and it's a little jumpy but it should work and well… Do you want to help me?" Chris demanded without shame.

"Do something without telling your brother, my boyfriend, because you're reckless little brother?"

Chris shut his eyes and pressed his palms into his eyes, inhaling and exhaling at a methodical pace. The school around them was teeming with life not once stopping to notice the strange, timed paradox of Bianca and Chris. But Bianca watched Chris, recognizing his need to steady his own thoughts and wanting desperately to reach out to him and comfort him but she wouldn't, or couldn't.

"You collected mermaid's hair." Bianca suddenly stated. Chris didn't come out of his trance and so she continued. "And from what I heard you were in South America at night, in a field on the Andes under a particular kind of moon. That's when Nemod almost killed you…"

"He wasn't trying to kill me…" Chris sighed.

"And didn't you get into a scrape with the sand storm demons of the northern tip of Egypt just a few weeks ago?" Bianca frowned.

"Does Wyatt keep nothing to himself?" Chris groaned finally opening his eyes again.

"You don't want to travel into the past just to save your cousins." Bianca stated simply. Chris' eyes grew wide from shock but as he opened his mouth to respond, Bianca shook her head.

"He would never let you go, unless you told him and even then…" Bianca nodded understanding.

"How do you know I haven't told him…?" Chris asked. Bianca smiled slowly before laughing and with a nod she stood up and held out her hand to the young man sitting in front of her.

"Because, oddly enough I know you." She winked at him and Chris without hesitation took her hand and the two walked out of the coffee shop, leaving behind their coffee and the works of Charles Dickens.

Henry Jr. was sitting on the bottom of the stairs of the attic in the Halliwell manor, muttering into his phone. He was staring at the large face of his wristwatch as he nodded patiently into the phone.

"So you haven't been attacked at all?" He asked. Amelle, his charge was chattering away excitedly on the other side, assuring her own guardian angel that there had been no sightings of anything dangerous or dark. Chris jumped over his younger cousin as he came running down the stairs to grab something out of his room. Chris smacked the back of Henry's head as he swung his body around the corner of the walls and though HJ tried to smack him back, the younger counterpart wasn't fast enough.

Chris ran into his room, almost flying to his desk where after some complicated hand movements in a hushed muttering something appeared in his open palm.

"Are you going to miss our date again then?" Verity asked sorrowfully from behind Chris. Chris spun around to face his girlfriend, a magical misfit he had been forgetting more than usual this month.

"Verity, I thought our date was tomorrow night…." Chris attempted slyly with a smile. Verity stepped slowly onto her toes as she lifted her hand to caress Chris' cheek and her gold eyes glittered.

"I wish I had never told you that prophecy." She sighed. Chris bent down and kissed her as his response of gratitude that she had told him the prophecy that had sent him into his recent bout of obsessive behavior.

"So tomorrow?" Chris whispered as he ran his hand through the tips of Verity's black and blond hair.

"Time travel is dangerous for you…" Verity warned. There was a light knock on the door before Bianca poked her head into the room.

"If you don't want Wyatt or your mother to notice what is happening…" Bianca started before a malicious hiss from Verity caused her to stop.

"Bianca De La Guarda," Verity's eyes became slits of anger and her hand struck out to hold onto to Chris' wrists.

"Verity you've met Bianca?" Chris asked confused.

"Pleasure, I'm sure. But seriously, Chris if you want this to happen your way…." Bianca insisted.

"You're going to help him?" Verity asked scathingly, tightening her grip. Chris stared at her bewildered, trying to pry his own hands away from her.

"Verity, you're going to hurt yourself." Chris snapped as he ripped his right wrist out of her fingers.

"He asked for my help, I'm dating his older brother." Bianca explained stepping into the room.

"Chris, why didn't you ask me for help?" Verity demanded spinning around.

"Verity, it's a complicated spell and well you're more oracle than witch and time travel is already dangerous for me. You know that…" Chris tried to explain.

"Bianca De La Guarda," Verity whispered again as she glanced between Chris and Bianca.

"How do you know who I am?" Bianca asked annoyed. Verity didn't respond but simply dissolved into the air without another word, the imprints of her left fingers blushing red on Chris' wrist.

"Verity," Chris whined at the empty space in front of him.

"What the hell was that about?" Bianca demanded of him.

"I'll make it up to her tomorrow night, I can't deal with it now. We're out of time you say?" Chris laughed at the absurdity of being out of time for time travel.

"Yeah, also try to be open minded about Melinda." Bianca winked at him as she magically transported herself out of his room with Chris' orbs following her.

Wyatt stepped out of his class, carrying a notebook and pen grumbling about the stupidity of pop quizzes in college classes. He flicked his sunglasses on as he tried to refocus his thoughts out of the cosmos of Aristotle and back onto the rising threat of the dark underworld to his family. Wyatt yawned tired from his already long day. He trudged along, sticking his hand into his pocket slowly collecting the residue of catnip that had been left over from his earlier meeting with Benji. The demon snitch had absolutely no information on werewolves at all, though he was mysteriously hinting at some deep dark secret involving Chris. Chris had reacted quickly, orbing the catnip to the demon and orbing Wyatt out of the dingy bar without warning.

"Demon knows more about my stupid brother than I do." Wyatt chucked the bits of catnip into the trashcan before walking into the coffee shop. He finally lifted his head to look over to the corner where he had left Bianca and Chris, exactly forty-five minutes before only to see a collection of students that he didn't recognize.

"Is there no one in the world that can't be control by my brother's charm?" Wyatt growled hurriedly stepping into the bathroom and orbing straight home.

Bianca and Henry were drawing the triquetra with chalk onto the wall while Melinda and Chris faced off their familial stubbornness. Chris stood a head taller than his younger sister, clad in a familiar green sweatshirt and a pair of jeans with his arms crossed. Melinda looked small swimming in a sweatshirt that belonged to Chris, but her stare was deathly set and her mouth was set in a slight curl that was familiar of Piper.

"No Melinda." Chris growled.

"Werewolves go after half-bloods. I'm the only non-half-blood in the family." Melinda rolled her eyes explaining the situation in a condensing tone.

"Don't you use that tone with me Melinda," Chris snapped. "Mom and Phoebe aren't half-bloods." He defended.

"Want to ask them to come with you?" Melinda taunted.

"Why are you so annoying!" Chris took a step forward with his hands stretched out in a mock chocking grasp.

"You are a liability, you're an even more powerful half-blood than Pen or Tricia." Melinda pointed out.

"I will not put you in danger." Chris gritted his teeth.

"You put me in danger everyday big brother," Melinda teased. "Don't you think its time you stop pretending that I can be safe, that I don't need to learn how to fight."

"Do not act like demons have been after you all your life, because they haven't. Your first demon attack was two years ago Melinda, two years ago…" Chris waved his hands around his head in aggravation.

"Not to rain on your older brother, my life is tougher than yours rant…" Bianca tapped against the face of her cell phone desperately.

"Come on Chris, please? You know I can help, you know I'm not helpless. You would take Patience, I know you would so why can't you trust me?" Melinda begged as she started tugging at her brother's sweatshirt with force.

"Fine, fine. But Melinda, if I tell you something you do it. No arguing when we're fighting demons." Chris pointed at her sternly. Melinda nodded smiling gleeful.

"Now, I'm sure you've thought of this and all but Chris…" HJ swallowed nervously. All the eyes in the attic turned to him with tentative annoyance.

"Isn't there a time travel ban placed on the manor, you know because of your little issue…"HJ stuttered.

"Mom is so over protective." Chris muttered softly.

"Don't know what that feels like." Melinda whispered sarcastically. Chris shot her a look but didn't comment.

"But, I happen to know that she recently lifted it because she was worried that the ban was keeping the girls from getting home. So we should be fine, ready to say the spell?"

Wyatt materialized practically into the kitchen table, clumsily and completely unlike his usual self. He stared around confused at his location as he had been aiming for the attic of the manor. Piper was chopping up some vegetables at the counter and stared over at her oldest son surprised by his appearance and entrance.

"Wyatt are you feeling well sweetheart?" She asked putting down her knife.

"Chris? Have you seen Chris?" He asked his mother frantically trying to understand why he hadn't appeared in the attic. Piper frowned, the creases between her eyes setting in deeper as she shook her head and looked up at the ceiling. The mother and son started racing up the stairs to the attic as something above their heads crashed.

By the time that the eldest Charmed One and Twice Blessed witch entered the attic, a large gaping time portal was open and swirling on the wall. Bianca and Henry were standing in the middle of the attic, the charmed child looking guilty and the phoenix witch looking resigned.

"Is that what I think it is?" Piper demanded fixating her eyes on the swirling time portal.

"It will be open for 24 hours." HJ nodded.

"Where is Chris?" Piper spun to face her son. Wyatt hung his head and muttered into his chest.

"1992." He responded to his mother.

"Christopher time traveled, is that what you're telling me?" Piper crossed her arms and glared at all the young people in her attic.

"And Melinda, ma'am." Bianca decided to add. Wyatt's head snapped up angrily, though it was debatable if the anger was towards his youngest sister being back in time or his girlfriend informing his mother. A rack of potion vials shattered upon the news and Wyatt flinched.

"In 1992, is this one of your ideas gone array Wyatt?" Piper asked ignoring her own magical outburst.

"No ma'am." Wyatt responded shaking his head.

"Well let's go downstairs and you three can explain EVERYTHING to me." Piper sighed giving one last look at the swirling portal before turning on her heel and walking out. Wyatt whacked HJ's shoulder as he walked past without a word and held out his hand for Bianca.

"I asked you to watch my brother," Wyatt sighed.

"It wasn't a bad plan Wyatt, Melinda and Chris are going to get your cousins back. I know they will…" Bianca comforted her angry boyfriend in a whisper.

**October 19, 1992 **

** "**Chris!" Penelope flung herself at her cousin at the moment he stepped through the wall almost sending them both back into the portal.

"Melinda?" Tricia quipped confused.

"What am I stepping on?" Chris shook his leg out of a medium sized bongo.

"You cut your hair." Penelope commented observing her cousins carefully.

"A lot has happened while you've been gone." Melinda nodded laughing.

"I thought mom didn't throw anything away, what is all this stuff?" Chris asked as he bent down to pick up a single red go-go boot.

"Can we walk through that portal and get home?" Tricia asked stepping forward carefully examining the swirling blue substance.

"The portal will be open for 24 hours, we figured that should be enough time to take care of our little werewolf problem." Melinda nodded.

"Chris isn't just going to take care of the werewolf problem?" Tricia asked tilting her head in confusion at her tall cousin. Chris stared down at her noticing the difference of her question.

"Do you want me to?" Chris asked automatically placing his hand over Melinda's mouth, anticipating his sister's need to sarcastically interject.

"I've been protecting my mother." Patricia stated practically.

"How?" Chris asked smiling.

"I've been able to sense her and keep her safe with my ice power." Tricia explained.

"You've never been able to sense people, have you been orbing?" Chris asked settling himself into the old familiar chair that was in his own mother's attic, though not as clutter surrounded.

"Our powers have become stronger." Penelope nodded.

"You've been using your powers?" Melinda asked excitedly.

"Mom and the aunts don't have their powers, they are in constant danger and don't even know it." Tricia explained quietly.

"Normal lives in ignorance, could you imagine how powerful they would have been had they been practicing?" Penelope asked staring at the empty podium where the book of shadows should have rested.

"Mom's only safe because no one knows who she is, but somehow this creature…" Tricia explained desperately. Chris was smiling brightly at his two cousins; they had finally understood their heritage and the reasons why they couldn't turn their backs on their magic.

"I suspect, that you're the ones that triggered the creature into coming here." Chris scratched his head. "Witch-half-breeds are unheard of, basically unknown at this time, so when you arrived the stench of our blood was undeniable. But when the werewolf arrived here, he could only smell out the strongest scent, which is Paige because she has lived in this time. You don't exist yet and your scent doesn't exist without you, as you've only been here for…"

"Almost a week." Penelope provided.

"You're scent has just started to settle, the creature will be able to find you by tomorrow." Chris nodded yawning.

"I have to get back to watching mom." Tricia yawned.

"I'll go with you." Melinda stepped forward holding out her hand. Chris jumped to his feet ready to protest but Penelope held out her hand to hold him back.

"They'll be back in four hours and then we'll switch for the morning shift. I've foreseen that nothing happens but the problem is that aunt Paige and mom both seem to like to wander off at night…" Penelope explained.

"So what you're telling me is that Mels and Tricia might be wandering around the city, unsupervised following teen Paige?" Chris demanded.

"We are the supervision." Tricia winked at him before she tugged on Melinda and the two cousins were gone in the blink of an eye.

"I have looked into the future, they will be fine and the time together will be good for the both of them." Pen smiled at Chris.

"You can control your visions now?" Chris asked curiously.

"It takes effort and honestly my powers are fiercely strong when I'm in the manor…" Penelope shrugged.

"The nexus still exists in this time and well you must be tapping into all the unused familial power." Chris yawned again.

"Coffee and research?" Penelope asked him cheerfully.

"Won't you wake Grams?" Chris asked.

"No, I saw all this earlier." Penelope pulled a thermal out from a backpack at her feet and started pouring out a cup. As Chris accepted it, he opened his mouth to ask for something else but didn't even breathe a word before Penelope was handing him a plate with a cake slice.

"Your mom was here earlier today and she baked chocolate cake…" Penelope giggled holding out a fork.

"The cake she only makes once a year for dad's birthday?" Chris sniffed at the slice delighted.

"That's the one." Penelope laughed as she watched her older cousin shovel cake into his mouth. The young cupid yawned as she settled down on the floor at Chris' feet pulling the much thinner book of shadows into her lap.

"What are we researching?" Chris asked through his mouth full of cake.

"You know I've never really look at the Book of Shadows in our time," Penelope shrugged. Chris nodded as he scraped his fork against the plate trying to catch every bit of the cake he could. The middle son of Piper and Leo had noticed years before that it was his siblings and himself that were drawn, almost obsessed with the book of shadows compared to his cousins. He assumed that the others would sooner or later develop an interest in their family heritage.

"In this entry a Bowen wrote down her observations about how our family powers increase." Pen commented.

"And what does she say?" Chris asked having never come across the entry before.

"There is a lot of discussion of the increasing power base we gain through marriage. Did you know that historically, our ancestors married a lot of powerful male witches," Pen explained.

"We've expanded to white lighters, elders and cupids." Chris laughed.

"There have been demons before too…" Penelope whispered thoughtfully.

_She's starting to suspect. _The voice from his dream echoed distantly in Chris' head and he pressed his thumbs into his temples in annoyance.

"I don't think we should wait until the werewolf attacks Paige." Chris set his jaw in thought.

"I didn't think you would, but I'm not sure what else we can do." Pen wrinkled up her nose and looked up at Chris with her radiant purple eyes.

"Bring it to us, you think you three are up for that?" Chris stood up and flicked chocolate crumbs off his pants.

"You aren't going to do any hand holding? So unlike you…" Pen frowned slowly rising to her feet.

"Is there any time for hand holding?" Chris asked smiling recklessly as he held out his hand to her in a grand gesture.

"Not on your timeline, you have things to do in this time." Pen winked at him and before he could ask what she knew, the young cupitch had vanished in a brilliant red light.

"Well, look who went out and learned how to heart." Chris whistled before orbing out himself.

**October 20, 2023 **

Verity Vanguard was sitting at her desk starring at a photograph of Chris and her own face smiling. Chris was wearing that obnoxious black necklace that she had finally convinced him wasn't cool just last month and she was wearing a pair of earrings he had bought her. It was a picture from about a month ago, right before October started, right before she had given Chris a prophecy about his family.

"When we were still a couple." Verity sighed sadly.

A vase of flowers was conjured right in front of the oracle, a selection of absurdly rare golden lilies from the shores of the Nile with a black note card.

_Thinking of You. Meet me at a café in Paris? _

Verity began to giggle, like a schoolgirl with a crush as she sniffed at one of the lilies. She pressed the card to her chest and flashed into a chair on a bustling street of Paris.

"Your hair twinkles like the stars under this kind of lightning, absolutely breath-taking." Nemod complimented the young lady. She recognized the voice and as she opened her eyes, her smile fell from her lips.

"Expecting your dear Christopher? But you must know he's traveling into the past. Even I know that." Nemod winked at her as he leaned forward and poured her a cup of tea.

"I thought for a second…" Verity sighed as she picked up the cookie on her plate.

"That you would be the focus of our young Christopher? Haven't you known him long enough to not expect that?" Nemod asked sincerely.

"Maybe…" Verity frowned down at her tea.

"And isn't Bianca in the picture now? Haven't you seen all that nasty business with her? I know my seer has…" Nemod stated knowingly.

"Why do you keep appearing in my life?" Verity asked suddenly. Nemod smiled at the girl across from him lovingly, with a twinkle in his eye demonstrating his sincerity.

"Its my lame attempt at courting you, I know old fashioned but I thought it was the best way to make a good impression." Nemod held out his hand with the palm up at the girl.

"Court me? But I have a boyfriend." Verity frowned.

"That leaves you alone on your dates and is never around?" Nemod questioned.

"He doesn't mean to…" Verity tried to defend Chris but found that even she struggled for something good to say.

"I can give you the world, a throne even." Nemod suggested.

"You are moving quite fast?" Verity chewed on one of her nails nervously.

"I need an answer very soon." Nemod shrugged apologetically.

Verity frowned but she was seeing her own future before her eyes and decisions were never hard for someone that knew their outcome so instantly.

A puff of black and white smoke burst over Phoebe's chest as she cracked a stick of cinnamon over an old pot. Piper was tapping her nails impatiently on her sister's counter and Paige was sitting on top of the counter near the stove focusing on a cracked mirror in her hands.

"Anything?" Piper demanded.

"Forcing premonitions about our children, not as easy as figuring out if I am suppose to marry a man…" Phoebe snapped.

"If I recall, that didn't work out either…" Paige muttered.

"You two are being exceptionally helpful today." Phoebe sighed.

"I want to go back there and drag all of them home." Piper jumped from her stool quickly, ready to spring into action despite the graying in her hair the oldest Halliwell was still a force of sheer power and charmed abilities.

"Because four future Halliwells isn't enough to tip some balance scale of some sort? Are we sure that we aren't messing some time space continuum thing?" Phoebe demanded spinning around to ask Paige. Paige's eyebrows shot up before her eyes became visible just barely over the edge of the mirror she was holding, still intently.

"You watch the Back to the Future marathon that was on this weekend? Miss Dervin too, don't you?" Paige mocked.

"Paige! Focus." Phoebe snatched the mirror away from her younger sister.

"Phoebe! That mirror could show us the girls, any minute now." Paige reached out trying to grab it back.

"And where did you get that exactly?" Piper asked suspiciously before adding in a serious tone, "Phoebe is right, you checked with the Elders that my children didn't tip some scale and cause the end of the world as we know it in 1992…"

"Yeah, I went up there and double checked. They weren't thrilled but as long as Chris doesn't mess with the time line like he did the last time he traveled…" Paige trailed off as she stared at Piper.

"He knows." Piper gritted her teeth impatiently again, the desire to smack her younger son upside the head was growing with every passing moment.

"And the girls haven't tripped up any crucial time moments, as far as anyone I've spoken to can tell." Paige shrugged.

"I for one am happy that my nephew finally took the proactive step into the past to bring back my baby." Phoebe sighed as she started to pull down coffee cups from one of her cupboards.

"You going to hide him in your coat closet again when Piper wants to blow him up?" Paige mocked.

"Once! I was being the cool aunt and you're never going to let me live it down, not like you wouldn't have done with the same thing with Wyatt. Chris just looked so sorry, and he had those adorable nine year old checks and his frazzled bowl cut atrocity that Leo gave him on accident." Phoebe smiled as she remembered the little boy her nephew once had been.

"He brought the monsters out of one of Melinda's fairy tale books to life and scared his sister half to death, and you thought he was cute when he ran away?" Piper rolled her eyes.

"He didn't mean it." Phoebe scrunched up her nose and used her high pitch childish voice.

"I think we should blame Phoebe for Chris' disregard for authority." Paige pointed and nodded knowingly.

"Right, because you never let those dimples get away with anything?" Phoebe frowned.

"Remember when he broke Henry's windshield with a baseball?" Piper laughed.

"You know, Chris isn't the only one that got away with things." Patience had appeared in the kitchen unnoticed. Dry tear streaks framed Patience's mouth and she was wearing a large sweatshirt that belonged to Dervin and a pair of volleyball shorts with no shoes. Piper frowned at Phoebe before ushering her niece onto one of the stools and rubbing her hand across her back.

"Of course not Princess," Piper whispered lovingly. The three charmed ones didn't have to be an empath to recognize the heartbreak radiating from the young cupitch.

"Piper didn't you have Leo tear up the pipes of the manor when little Patience over there lost the earrings that Coop gave Phoebe on their fifth anniversary?" Paige laughed.

"Oh she was devastated, I couldn't let Phoebe yell at her…" Piper laughed.

"I was four!" Patience defended.

"Yes, and didn't mommy tell you not to play with those?" Phoebe winked at her daughter mockingly she as handed her tea.

"Are you worried about them?" Patience asked her mother.

"No." Phoebe stated confidently.

"Really?" Patience looked up at Piper.

"Chris is many things, but he would never let any of those girls get hurt or anything bad happen." Piper nodded.

"But you're worried about something?" Patience glanced over to Paige, who had finally picked her mirror back up.

"Time travel is dangerous and tricky." Paige nodded. Patience sipped at her tea and suddenly buried her nose into the puffy sleeve of the sweatshirt she was wearing. In seconds the seventeen year old was heaving dry tears.

"Oh no," Piper hushed overwhelmed stroking at the short haircut of her niece.

"HJ has a date with Amelle tonight…" Paige said loudly over her niece's crying.

"Can I help him get ready?" Patience blinked away the tears as quickly as they came. Phoebe forced a smile and nodded and the girl was gone in a flash of red.

"Thanks Paige." Phoebe sighed.

"Coop needs to lift that cupid jinx that he placed on that girl," Piper crossed her arms and stared at the place where Patience had been sitting.

"It's not a jinx Piper! He's convinced it is for her safety." Phoebe wrung her hands.

"If Leo had cupid powers, he would be convinced keeping Melinda away from all teenage boys was for her safety too." Piper nodded knowingly giving her sister a smile.

"Henry won't even take off his gun anymore when he picks up the girls from school on occasion, I think he's trying to make sure all those boys know that Tricia and Dora have a cop for a daddy…" Paige laughed.

"Dad tried to get into a fist fight with Leo on my wedding day… At least that's the story that Leo tells." Piper laughed.

"I see you ladies are mocking fathers of daughters?" Coop asked appearing with Primrose in his arms. The youngest Halliwell had half a dozen fairy designed band-aids on her left hand.

"Bug what happened?" Phoebe rushed over to inspect the injury on the child. Primrose squirmed out of her father's arms and onto the ground, keeping her hand away from her mother.

"I was playing around one of the old stone statues and it wasn't a statue!" Primrose threw up her hands and placed them angrily onto her hips. Phoebe tried not to laugh at her youngest child's indignation.

"The ones in the endless hallway?" Paige frowned looking up at Coop for confirmation. Coop opened his mouth to answer but a groan escaped his lips instead as he pressed his eyes closed in pain.

"Coop!" Phoebe gasped moving forward towards her husband. Piper quickly ushered Primrose behind her as she stared over at her brother-in-law.

"The seal, something is breaking my seal. Where is Patience?" Coop finally gasped. Phoebe's eyes widen in terror but she didn't respond, instead looking around her home as if searching for her daughter.

"She's helping HJ on his date." Paige responded.

"Is she in trouble?" Piper asked quietly.

"No, no. She should stay distracted, I'm going to be right back." Coop straightened back up and disappeared before his wife could question him. Phoebe stood trying to remember everything her Cupid husband had ever told her about the magic of binding lovers, ignoring the conversations that started between her sisters and her youngest daughter.

"So the statue did this to your hand?" Piper asked Primrose.

"Yes, it came alive and scratched me." Primrose nodded showing her aunt the bandage hand.

"And you picked all these band-aids?" Paige laughed.

"Yes," Primrose nodded.

"How about I heal it?" Paige asked outstretching her hand to grasp the smaller fingers.

"Have you ever heard of those statues coming to life?" Piper frowned as a warm light emitted from Paige's hands and Primrose's band-aids became nothing but a fashion statement.

Phoebe finally snapped out of her trance and sprung into a maternal action by turning around to hurriedly peel off the band-aids from Prim's hands and beg Paige to call HJ and check on Patience.

Young Henry stood in the middle of his family's living room, patiently waiting for Patience to magically shade a tie to perfectly match his eyes.

"Your cupid powers are growing," The older Henry commented as he entered with a newspaper in one hand and a sandwich in the other. Henry Mitchell looked tired as his peppered gray hair was glittering in the light of the setting sun and the bags under his eyes appeared as bruises. It was hard to sleep at night when one of your daughters was missing and the mug that was balancing his plate of food was a clear indication that the father didn't expect any sleep at all when two of his children were not in their beds.

"Yes, it's the strangest thing…" Patience paused as she held up a oak colored tie to her cousin. "Maybe, because I'm helping HJ with his little romance."

"Little romance?" HJ scoffed at the girl's airs of superiority. "Going to start talking like a cupid are we?"

"Not to rain on your parade son," Henry started.

"But you're going to anyway?" HJ sighed

"Well your mother tells me that there is a new source rising, and she assures me this is something dark and terrible coming after you kids…" Henry started slowly trying to make sense of the magical world he had married into.

"You weren't around for the old sources, were you Uncle Henry?" Patience asked curiously as she started to style HJ's hair without actually using her hands. She snapped her fingers and different hairstyles would pop into place.

"No, I met and married Paige during that whole Ultimate Battle thing. I never knew much about it, she wouldn't tell me. I do remember the night she didn't come home, but I didn't know then that she had, well…" Henry couldn't even think about the possibility that once so many years ago, Paige had died. Patience and HJ were silent, they knew the story, both cousins were aware that if it hadn't been for Piper's sheer stubbornness that neither would have ever been born because their mothers would have stayed dead.

"The point is that was pretty bad. Paige is telling me that a new source of all evil is actually worse. Not to mention that apparently this demon is no longer targeting your mom and her sisters but you kids…" Henry was leaning forward, hovering protectively as he voiced his concerns.

"Nothing we can't handle. The charmed ones destroyed two sources during their heyday, and they were three sisters. I think we can take care of one rising source with nine cousins, don't you HJ?" Patience smiled sympathetically at her uncle as she conjured a bouquet of flowers.

"Four sisters," Henry whispered more to himself before continuing louder, "My point is, that isn't there more important things than trying to date your charge? From what I understand that's not sanctioned behavior to being it…"

"Uncle Leo was Aunt Piper's white lighter." Patience defended.

"Yes, but they didn't have it easy did they?" Henry countered.

"She's not really my charge pop, I wouldn't worry about that anyway. Its just a date." HJ laughed nervously.

"And about the source, Chris is in the past getting my sisters back and Wyatt is brewing every protective potion he can find. We're preparing." Patience nodded.

"Yes but," Henry attempted again.

"Love, friends and family are the only way our mothers and aunt Piper ever stayed sane. It can't always be about magic." Patience winked giving her uncle a quick hug before she stepped back to admire her work on HJ.

"Wise words for the little fashionista." Henry chuckled as he stroked his niece's hair. Suddenly Patience choked and collapsed forward coming only inches from hitting the ground before HJ caught her in his orbs and gently dropped her into his father's arms.

"Patience," Father and son tried to shake the girl out of her trance.

Dervin Rogers fell out of bed with a loud thump, groaning in pain as he muttered Patience name. Coop appeared at the foot of the bed looking down concerned at the boy. Smacking his hands against his eyes as he yawned, Dervin didn't try to get up from the ground.

"The dreams about her are getting more vivid…" Dervin explained to the Cupid in his room.

"You need to try to control them." Coop explained.

"Any suggestions on how I'm suppose to do that?" Dervin retorted sarcastically. The boy sat up from the ground, his green eyes teeming with a rage of annoyance.

"Drink tea before you fall asleep and get a dream catcher." Coop suggested seriously.

"Isn't that how the guys were taking care of their night-mare problem? Is it possible that I'm being tormented by those demons?" Dervin questioned.

"Not likely. Unless these are nightmares you are having about Patience?"

"No…" Dervin sighed slowly. The dream he had just been having was anything but a nightmare, it was a perfect moment of history that he had been reliving. Dervin had been having many dreams, moments of colorful recollections of his three-year relationship with Patience.

"I thought you said I wouldn't remember her?" Dervin pulled his body back into bed.

"You're not suppose to, you and Patience seem stubbornly inclined to not forget each other." Coop whispered.

"Maybe its time you weren't so stubbornly inclined to this plan of yours," Dervin suggested but upon glancing up at the older man he quickly added, "sir."

"Maybe one day, when you have a daughter you might understand my stubbornness." Coop shrugged and disappeared.

**October 20, 1992 **

The sun was rising above the city of San Francisco and the morning fog was drifting over the streets. The werewolf was stumbling around as he was hit from every direction with blasts ice. Melinda dashed underneath a stream of ice and Chris could be heard chastising her from afar. Penelope was standing watch trying to sense any heartbeats that might be heading towards the magical fight.

"Be careful, damn it." Chris hissed. Melinda ignored his rebut she threw up her hands anxiously.

"Now!" She shouted as she froze the werewolf. Chris was perched on top of a trashcan watching the fight from a distance. The young man had devised the plan of attack for the three girls, knowing and understanding that four charmed children was hardly necessary for one lone werewolf. Chris was taking this opportunity to watch his younger family members, observe how Tricia and Pen's powers had grown in the past. Chris flicked a silver knife through the air at his sister's waiting hands and smiled as she caught it effortlessly. Melinda plunged the knife into the werewolf's chest just as he awoke from his frozen state. A massive paw swung at Melinda but using her newest power of speed the girl had moved and plunged the knife into the werewolf two more times before the creature even knew what was happening.

The werewolf howled as he burst into flames and Melinda stumbled backwards from shock. Chris orbed behind her and caught his sister before she tumbled onto the ground.

"We should practice looking before leaping," Chris sighed.

"You should practice not criticizing everything." Melinda snapped.

"Not that I don't just love it when the two of you fight, but can we go home now?" Tricia asked excitedly as she yawned.

"We have to let grams know we're leaving…" Penelope suggested as she walked away from her look out spot.

"I really want to meet Mom, see her before…" Melinda nodded excitedly.

"No." Chris shook his head seriously. "You and Tricia will go home, now. I'll stay while Pen tells Grams."

Penelope flashed a curious look at Chris as Melinda wrinkled up her nose at her brother.

"Why can't I stay with Penelope?" Melinda asked.

"Rising source on our side of the timeline, we have got bigger problems." Chris sighed.

"Aren't you oh so much more important to that fight?" Melinda smiled charmingly.

"Melinda, I want to go home." Tricia pushed her elbow into Melinda's side impatiently. Melinda rolled her eyes and nodded holding out her hand to her cousin.

"Straight through the portal." Chris stated as strangely dim orb lights swallowed Tricia and Melinda.

"Not to be difficult, but you know I will go straight home once I tell Grams." Penelope squinted as she studied Chris' face.

"No need for me to repeat what you've already seen. Meet you in two hours, exactly." Chris bent down and kissed his cousin on the forehead before waving her back to the Manor.

* * *

Author's Note: Sorry about they delay! I hadn't actually forgotten, this was just a long chapter. And I've been swamped, so I apologize, I'm up the final upslope of action to the end point, a few more chapters (maybe 4?) Let me know what you think, or if you guys are even still reading...


	15. Want to be a Victim

**Want to be a Victim **

_E.T., Katy Perry featuring Kayne West _

**October 21, 2023 **

Dora was curled on her bed magically painting her hair with silver streaks of glitter. The spunky twin was hiding her face behind strands of her hair as she sat in the self-induced darkness of her shared room in the middle of the afternoon. A soft jingle alerted her to the appearance of her older brother enough for her to scoff at him.

"Did you get sent to your room too?" She demanded without looking up at him.

"No, I don't tend to be as misbehaved as you." HJ chuckled softly as he settled on sitting on the edge of her bed.

"I just wanted to talk to my sister…" Dora grumbled.

"You sent your sister into the past," HJ mimicked his mother's high-pitch reproached. Dora pushed her hair out of her face and tilted her head to one side as she glared at her brother.

"I just wanted to talk to her…" Dora whispered.

"You have to learn to control your emotions, setting the microwave on fire did not help your cause." HJ threw his body back onto the bed and let his eyes travel up to look at Dora's scrunched nose.

"That wasn't my fault."

"Never Pandora Henley Mitchell's fault." HJ rolled his eyes and pressed his finger to his mouth slowing blowing up a swirl of orbs that flickered images of memories.

"That's a strange power…" Dora frowned.

"Not sure it's a power, so much as just a spark of power. That happens on occasion, you wouldn't notice because your emotions just escalate the powers you hold, but Professor Hanson teaches that because as magical teens we have magical growing pains…" HJ half-heartedly lectured as he watched his own circulating memories.

The door creaked as Tricia stepped into the room and Dora practically jumped on top of the mesmerized HJ. She stumbled off the bed and tripped over the dirty clothing piles around the foot of her bed. HJ snapped up into a sitting position and leaned forward glaring at Patricia.

"Are you still giving up your powers?" He snapped harshly. Tricia pushed the door shut avoiding eye contact with her siblings for a moment longer.

"You did get sent to your room didn't you?" Dora giggled as she pointed at HJ's angry look.

"Dad didn't appreciate his tone so much, or that whole sulking angry teenager bit…" Tricia turned around fighting the smile that was creeping onto her face.

"Doesn't want me to pressure her… It's your sister's decision…" HJ spat.

"It's not just her decision, Tricia knows that…" Dora choked struggling to get back up onto her feet.

"Why did you send me into the past?" Tricia held out her hand to help her twin up from the ground.

"I didn't mean to," Dora squeaked.

"Dora has magical abilities in dreams. She wandered into my dream and we said a poorly written spell…"

"No one asked for an opinion on what happened." Dora flicked her finger at her brother's knee.

"A spell to get rid of me?" Tricia gasped sounding hurt as she held out her outstretched hand for her sister. Dora shook her head and clasped her hand into Tricia's, the twin's touching creating a burst of steam illustrating a similar effect of a tea kettle.

"No. Of course not, a spell to make you understand why you just had to keep your magic." Dora choked on the steam curling into her nose and around her eyes.

"A spell that would make you realize why it is imperative that you remain a witch, I attribute the fact that it was so poorly written that you ended up in the past." HJ shrugged.

"With Penelope," Tricia concentrated on the steam and suddenly it began to take an ice shape. "Because she had also stopped using her powers, because she also had to understand why it's important that we're witches…"

"You did learn." HJ watched not his sisters but the way Tricia controlled her magic around Dora's and shaped an ice sculpture that floated over a bit of steam.

"Mom didn't know she was a witch when she was our age." Tricia explained and Dora squinted at the ice sculpture of a young Paige Matthews in her hands. Dora was trying to increase her wave of magic over her twin's and the ice started melting.

"Neither did the aunts." HJ nodded confused.

"No but the aunts didn't have powers, but mom. She had her powers, but she didn't know how to work them or even that she had them. She was always a target without knowing it for creatures that could smell her power…" Tricia struggled to ice over the melting water of her sculpture. There was silence as the twins had a silent struggle of strength over their magic.

"But she never got hurt," HJ prompted.

"No, but it made me think. Even if I weren't a witch anymore, I would still be a charmed child. No one would ever leave me alone, because I'm a daughter of Paige and a niece of Prue, Piper and Phoebe." Tricia dropped her hand and the ice splashed into water against the clothing on the ground.

"You learned why it's important that you are a witch." Dora smiled widely throwing her arms around her sister.

"You understand its part of who you are and who you were meant to be…" HJ nodded satisfied. "And you managed to control your powers on the way, maybe you can teach Dora something."

"I don't need help learning anything." Dora snapped defensively as she threw a pillow from Tricia's bed at her brother's head. The three siblings fell into a loud pillow fight and their mother giggled as she pushed away from the closed door. Henry walked down the hallway holding a can of soda and shaking his head at his wife.

"What kind of mother are you? Letting them rough house in there and I know HJ is in there, even though I sent him to his room…" Henry shot his hand out to turn the doorknob and set order in his household. Paige caught his hand though and shook her head.

"Let them be, they missed their sister." Paige smiled.

"And they are pleased with her decision to remain a witch?" Henry's eyebrow shot up.

"How would you know that?" Paige smiled.

"Its part of who she is, who they are, who you are…" Henry ducked down to kiss Paige's forehead.

"Such a smart mortal I married…" Paige kissed Henry's cheek.

"Even though I still don't understand why you can't fix the world's problems." Henry whispered.

"Yes you do," Paige pushed her husband back and stole his soda. Paige popped open the tab and letting the fizz of the dark substance run over the edges of the can.

Wyatt sipped at the overflowing soda from the edges of his coke. He was sitting up on the counter of the kitchen with a coke can open at his side as he munched mindlessly at a sandwich. The twice blessed witch casually allowed his eyes to wander towards the clock every thirty seconds, as he impatiently flicked at the can with his left hand's middle finger. He banged his head against the cabinet behind him as he heard the childish stomping of his younger sister arguing with their mother above. Since Melinda had arrived back without Chris, Piper had been grilling her youngest child on every detail of what had happened in the past. Personally, Wyatt was convinced that Piper was actually trying to weasel any information his youngest sister might have about what Chris had been doing with his life recently. It use to be that Piper and Leo would cajole Wyatt, threaten him really to tell them what his wayward younger brother's latest scheme was but since he had left for school things had changed.

It was taking every ounce of self-control Wyatt possessed to not jump down from the counter and orb up to the attic to walk through the open portal and drag his younger brother back from the past. The grandfather clock started to chime and Wyatt stared at the blinking numbers signaling that it was noon.

"Six more hours Chris, come on." Wyatt grumbled impatiently. The kitchen door swung open and Leo walked in wiping off the oil from his hands. Leo glanced at his oldest son and then stared at the clock himself and nodded.

"Time is something that I think your brother is acutely aware of." Leo offered calmly.

"Is that why he's always late? And how are you so calm?" Wyatt demanded of his father.

"Waiting is what a white lighter does, I was a white lighter for a long time. And I've been married to your mother for a long time, and I've been the father of teenage boys that never managed to get in on their curfew for a pretty long time." Leo chuckled as he pulled a soda from the refrigerator.

"I'm described as a patient person…" Wyatt argued.

"You are son, about everything except for your brother." Leo shrugged.

"Something about that twerp just puts me on edge…" Wyatt gritted his teeth.

"Don't call your brother a twerp." Leo reprimanded immediately.

"Sorry," Wyatt rolled his eyes. Leo had never truly allowed the boys to call each other names, but he had always been particularly hard on Wyatt anytime he teased his younger brother. Before Leo could respond, Patience flashed into the room crashing against the kitchen table clumsily. Patience was in a cut-off sweatshirt and running shorts, no part of her outfit or her messy hair was up to her usual fashionable standard.

"Are you all right?" Leo questioned alarmed to see his niece appear so suddenly and looking so tired.

"Penelope," Patience quipped ignoring her family members and jogging up the stairs. Leo stared after her bewildered but Wyatt reacted immediately jumped down loudly from the counter and running after her.

"How do you know?" Wyatt was demanding of her and Leo realized that the oldest cupid had appeared in anticipation of her sister coming home.

The front door crashed open and Coop's voice and Phoebe's familiar clacking heels sounded in the manor.

"Patience!" Coop called out. Leo walked out of the kitchen and pointed up to the attic as Primrose soared past him without so much as a hello.

"Having trouble keeping track of your daughter?' Leo questioned.

"Oh don't you sound so smug, father of the reason my oldest is always missing…" Phoebe snapped impatiently. Squeals carried down from above and Phoebe started running up the stairs of the manor, excited and relieved to know her lost girl was home.

Patience slammed into Penelope as she stepped out of the portal almost sending both cupitches back into the past if Wyatt had not been cautiously hovering around them enough to intercept. The emotion of the homecoming hit Penelope hard and the little empath collapsed into Wyatt's arms seconds after her older sister embraced her.

"What is happening to her Wyatt? Pen?" Patience screeched almost falling into hysteria.

"She's not hurt Patience, calm down. You are overwhelming her…" Wyatt struggled to hold Penelope as Primrose collided into Patience as she ran into the attic.

"Both of you calm down." Wyatt commanded forcefully at his cousins. Patience swallowed her emotions as she clutched Primrose to her torso. Penelope's eyes fluttered open, almost glowing a ruby red as she stared up at Wyatt's pointed chin.

"What is…" Wyatt started confused but Penelope jumped out of his hands and held out her arms to her sisters.

"Pen," Patience and Prim cried together before tumbling into their middle sister. Phoebe, Coop and Leo had finally entered the attic. Penelope was shaking as the emotion in the room escalated again but she didn't collapse as she threw her arms around her mother and her father. Wyatt was studying the usually calm empath with curiosity and Leo was staring behind his oldest son at the swirling portal that was still very much open as one traveler had yet to return.

"He didn't come back with Pen," Piper sighed from behind her husband. Leo turned around and shook his head.

"He'll be back before the portal closes." Leo stated confidently.

"That portal is the last door that boy is going to walk through for the next month," Piper warned.

"He's too old for you to keep grounding him Piper." Leo gave his wife a sad smile.

"There is going to be punishment involved for that boy when he steps back under our roof Leo," Piper snapped as she stepped past her husband and clapped her hands to get her family's attention.

"Pen, sweetheart. I am so happy you are home safely!" Piper smiled warmly. "Why don't we have a snack, I baked your favorite cookies earlier. Wyatt dear, why don't you be a dear and get your sister to come out of her room…"

Piper directed her oldest, but Wyatt was still staring at Penelope as frustration clouded his eyes.

"Can I talk to Wyatt for just a second…" Penelope duck out of Patience's hug.

"Alone?" Patience finished the thought confused.

"Just for a second." Penelope nodded vigorously.

"All right baby," Phoebe nodded patting her daughter's hair.

"Can the two of you not talk up here, maybe walk down to Wyatt's room?" Coop suggested eyeing the time portal suspiciously.

"Yes, we won't walk through the portal. I'll kill my brother when he comes back into our own time…" Wyatt snapped his fingers orbing his cousin and himself away from the attic and his room just a floor below.

"Magic, Wyatt!" Piper's voice rang clearly following her son's orbs.

Wyatt didn't even completely materialize before making his one demand of his cousin.

"Where is he?"

Penelope gave Wyatt a sad knowing smile as she picked up a framed photograph of Wyatt with his brother and sister at his own high school graduation.

"Did being normal help you stop worrying?" Penelope asked Wyatt. Wyatt frowned and crossed his arms defensively; unsure why Penelope was asking the question or how she knew of the deal he struck with his brother two years prior.

"You try being Chris' big brother and tell me if it's even possible to stop worrying ever…" Wyatt laughed nervously.

"That's not really what you worry about…" Penelope set the picture frame back down on the desk carefully.

_She's a bright little thing. _A voice commented from inside Wyatt's head, Wyatt's eyes popped in confusion staring around the room.

_Oh you know you can only see me when you are asleep. _The voice repeated and it took another glance around the room before Wyatt recognized the voice as Potter from his dreams.

"I think I'm going crazy." Wyatt sighed frustrated as he sat down on his bed and pressed his palm against his forehead. Penelope nodded and gingerly placed her hand on his broad shoulder shuddering at the touch. Wyatt's head snapped up immediately, sensing the surge of power similar to the one that had caused Penelope to cause just minutes before.

"What is it?" He whispered.

"Things are going to get bad." Penelope stepped back.

"Well, that's the story of our life." Wyatt chuckled. "But what did you see?"

"That's the thing… I saw a lot of things. I keep seeing a lot of things…" Penelope frowned.

"What do you mean?" Wyatt asked.

"Well, I saw Grams alive still when I was in the past. I kept seeing things that didn't happen and I saw things that had happened…" Penelope wrinkled her nose trying to understand.

"And when Pat and Prim hugged you?" Wyatt questioned.

"So many emotions, so many futures…" She shrugged. "I don't know what's happening."

"Maybe dad will know?" Wyatt shrugged back. He recognized the signs of powers growing in his family but he never bothered to learn the several hundred different power progressions, the twice-blessed witch still depended on his father to be the source of that information.

"You are both so scared." Penelope sighed starring at the picture again.

"Chris has never been scared of anything." Wyatt stated seriously. "Except for maybe mom. Where is he Pen?"

"He'll be home soon. He just had something he had to do…" Penelope shook her head as Wyatt started to open his mouth with questions. "… No, I don't know what he had to do."

_He's still alive and well. I can sense him too you know, maybe it's because I'm with both of you. _Potter's voice taunted and Wyatt found himself hoping that his subconscious was playing cruel tricks on his brain.

Melinda threw open Wyatt's door and smiled brightly.

"No Chris?" She shook her head.

"You shouldn't be so pleased to be right about your brother's knack for worrying everyone." Penelope rolled her eyes.

"I just like being right, I told mom he wouldn't come back with you." Melinda shrugged.

"And do you know what he is doing?" Wyatt threw his arm around his little sister as he walked out of his room.

"If I did, don't you think the first thing I would do is tell my big brother?" Melinda smiled innocently.

"No, I think you would tell mom first." Wyatt tugged at the back of his sister's ponytail.

"Really? I think she would blackmail Chris with her knowledge instead…" Penelope nodded thoughtfully.

"Has that ever worked out for you?" Wyatt asked seriously.

"What, blackmailing Chris?" Melinda smiled.

"Have you been keeping things from me for your own benefit?" Wyatt nodded.

"I wouldn't worry about it Wyatt. Chris and I have a mutual understanding about some things." Melinda winked before sprinting into the kitchen.

The sun was setting slowly above the quiet and mostly empty manor as Leo, Piper and Melinda had gone to magic school for a committee meeting about the Halloween dance. Wyatt sat alone in the attic staring at the swirling and shrinking time portal.

"Your face is going to stick that way…" Bianca teased as she shimmered into the attic behind the couch.

"For such a smart witch, you would think you would know not to just appear in Halliwell Manor…" Wyatt gritted his teeth as the bookcases behind him shook loudly but nothing exploded.

"A twice blessed witch should be able to sense a familiar power…" Bianca whispered loudly as she slipped her hands over Wyatt's shoulders and started trying to alleviate his stress.

"I don't think you should be here when…" Wyatt started warning just as a familiar pair of black converse stepped through the portal. Chris was hunched over with his black hood pulled over most of his face and his hands deep in his pockets. Wyatt waited crouched forward patiently as the portal closed completely before he pounced on his younger brother.

"You immature, selfish, reckless, careless…" Wyatt started as he jumped to his feet. Chris shook his head off his head and grinned at his brother.

"Reckless and careless are basically the same word, you know?"

The patience that Wyatt had been demonstrating all day evaporated in that one moment and he flung his hands into the air with force and direction enough to send Chris flying back into the windows of the attic. Slamming into the podium that held the Book of Shadows, Chris reacted only quick enough to orb himself back into the attic instead of allowing his body to crash into the fragile stain glass windows.

"Really Wyatt?" Chris sighed annoyed as he climbed out of the boxes of family heirlooms he had crashed into.

"Magic seems to be the only thing you respond to…" Wyatt spat angrily orbing flying pillows at his younger brother.

"Quit it!" Chris hollered as he shoved pillows out of his face.

"Can't handle it when big brother picks on you?" Wyatt demanded waving his hand again sending Chris back into the boxes.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Chris kicked the boxes away from him but before he could stand himself up, Wyatt was pulling his younger brother up magically. Bianca started clapping loudly as she forcefully stepped in front of Wyatt clasping her hands around his wrists and forcing his hands down.

"That is enough." She stated icily. Her eyes pierced into Wyatt's blue eyes long enough for the tall boy to drop his gaze in shame as he shook his hands out of her grasp. Bianca ignored Wyatt as she spun around and walked over to Chris.

"Are you all right?" She asked him seriously.

"Fine when my brother isn't trying to inflict his almighty power onto me…" Chris shook dust out of his short brown locks. Bianca stared at him a moment seemingly satisfying herself that he was indeed intact and well before her hand shot out and she smacked the back of his head hard.

"You really think taunting Wyatt was the best way to arrive back in your own time. You immature brat." Bianca snapped. Wyatt stifled a laugh from across the room at the sudden change of attitude.

"Ow, B. Did you really need to hit me? Wyatt almost sent me through a window that wasn't enough?" Chris rubbed the back of his head as he put on his best pout for the infuriated woman standing next to him.

"Out with it," Bianca held out her hand and curved up her fingers.

"Out with what?" Chris asked straightening up and forcing a look of confusion onto his face.

"In the pockets." Bianca pointed with her left hand and kept her right hand open. Wyatt stepped closer now interested in how Bianca knew that Chris was hoarding something in his pockets.

"Bianca," Chris half warned and half urged.

"Why does Bianca know more about what is going on with you than I do?" Wyatt asked his voice revealing his hurt of the situation more than annoyance.

"Come on then Chris, I am done listening to Wyatt complain about you. I am done watching him toss and turn in a sleep plagued with nightmares about you dying…." Bianca choked on the last word and Chris knew that his brother wasn't the only one having nightmares about his death.

"Sharing a bed are we?" The words tumbled out of his mouth before he even thought about them. Chris so constantly depended on his wit to take control of a situation that his commentary often was a knee jerk reaction rather than a calculated formula of attack to diffuse anything.

"Really?" Bianca's eyebrow shot up silently accusing him of oceans of things.

"I just used my magic against you." Wyatt was staring at his own hands. "You are driving me to the point of reckless with my own magic, with your safety…"

"That could also be because you are tired…" Bianca tried to soothed.

"Still being haunted by those nigt-mares?" Chris asked seriously.

"Nigt-mares, you didn't tell me about any nigt-mares…" Bianca gave Wyatt an alarmed stare.

"It didn't seem important. I wanted to let them torment me…" Wyatt defended.

"They are useful…" Chris nodded in agreement.

"You fools!" Bianca snapped taking long strides to the couch in the attic away from the brothers and sitting down with her arms crossed. Wyatt stared at Chris and tilted his head at Bianca mouthing the question, what's her problem?

Chris shrugged never lifting his left hand out of his pocket. Wyatt squinted his eyes at the pocket and snapped his fingers trying to orb whatever was in Chris pocket into his hands.

"That won't work." Bianca sighed.

"Seriously, what is going on?" Wyatt demanded crossing his arms.

"Did you idiots know that its dangerous to let nigt-mares plague you for continuous nights in a row?" Bianca demanded.

"It was mentioned to us…" Chris shrugged.

"Are you trying to change the subject, I thought you wanted Chris to stop this nonsense?" Wyatt ran both his hands around his neck and tried to massage the tension from the bottom of his neck.

"Did you also know that they are highly contagious?" Bianca glared pointedly at Wyatt.

"Are they?" Wyatt dropped his hands.

"Do you think…" Chris paled suddenly. "That it's our fault, that with Melinda…"

"Like I said idiots." Bianca rolled her eyes.

"You've been having nigt-mares too?" Wyatt questioned.

"Pretty vivid ones, thanks to you." Bianca spat.

"You know, real sorry about that B. But if you'll both excuse me…" Chris winked as he started to orb. Wyatt reacted quickly and ran a football tackle that pinned his brother to the ground.

"No," Wyatt said forcefully pinning Chris shoulders into the creaking floorboard of the attic.

"Yes, Wyatt is quite right. Enough is enough Chris, it's time you tell him." Bianca sighed.

"Why does my girlfriend know before I DO?" Wyatt shook Chris underneath him without releasing him.

"Get off of me!" Chris tried to push Wyatt off his torso, but baseball had never prepared him to be tackled like this.

"Not until you tell me what is going on, better yet…." Wyatt reached back behind him and pulled a crumpled brown paper bag from Chris sweatshirt pocket.

"All right, I will tell you. Get off me, please?" Chris struggled against his brother.

"I could drain his powers for you, I mean you already did beat him up with your powers tonight. We can keep this moment of deja-vu going…" Bianca retorted sarcastically.

"I'm sorry…" Both boys mumbled in unison though Wyatt made no attempt to get up.

"It's time to tell him Chris…" Bianca begged.

"FINE!" Chris exploded suddenly making the air around him spark with power as Wyatt jumped off his brother.

"I have a mind to call your mother." Bianca sighed.

"Because she just loves you." Chris huffed as he sat up. "Sorry Wyatt, I lost my temper a bit…"

"A bit…" Wyatt grumbled sitting up still clutching the brown bag. The oldest charmed child slowly started opening the bag, making his movements obvious as a signal to Chris to start talking.

"Verity, who I really should go see, like right now…" Chris started.

"If you had explained this before, maybe you could be doing that…" Bianca sighed.

"You're ever so helpful in this situation." Chris glared at her.

Wyatt was pulling a chunk of cement out of the bag and a tiny glass vial with drops of blood. He eyed the blood carefully pinching it between two fingers.

"Is this…" Wyatt started distracted for a moment before finishing his question, "Prue's blood?"

"Yes." Chris nodded.

"How did you? What did you do?" Wyatt asked appalled.

"Don't worry, I didn't disturb the timeline, I did it carefully. A little pin prick and a fancy invisibility spell. The one we perfected around the age of twelve when mom use to make us go to bed too early…" Chris sighed.

"And what is this then?" Wyatt asked holding up the piece of cement.

"A piece of home that was connected to the Nexus." Chris whispered.

"The what now?" Wyatt repeated.

"The Nexus."

"That doesn't exist anymore…" Wyatt frowned.

"But it did in 1992…" Chris sighed.

"And you needed a piece of the Nexus ground because?" Wyatt turned to face Chris now, carefully placing the magical items back in the brown bag they came from.

"I need it for a complicated magical procedure." Chris stated evasively.

"Chris is trying to create powerful magical objects." Bianca provided.

"Magical objects, and you know this because?" Wyatt looked up at his girlfriend.

"When he was you, or you were him… I caught him coming up from the ocean by campus holding Mermaid hair..." Bianca explained.

"Mermaid Hair?" Wyatt asked confused.

"And a few weeks back, you said he almost died in a field somewhere in South America on the same night as a particular moon. That's the exact time a very powerful flower blooms, the same flower that is used in most protective magic spells and potions." Bianca explained.

"She realized when I was intent upon going to the past…" Chris explained.

"Chris has been hunting objects, materials and tools for the creation of a magical protection object." Bianca explained. "As a phoenix, I have knowledge in the creation of such objects."

"Phoenix witches, you see, are constantly under attack and often pass down family heirlooms that keep them protected from certain types of powers. Which is why Bianca doesn't freeze…" Chris explained.

"Why?" Wyatt stopped his brother's academic explanation.

_Danger. You know its because there is danger. _Potter explained inside Wyatt's head.

"Verity Vanguard prophesized something to me." Chris mumbled.

"Prophesized what?" Wyatt clutched the brown paper bag in his hand.

"A new source would rise and in time one of the nine dies." The younger brother let his frightened green eyes find Wyatt's equally shocked blue eyes.

"Is that exactly what she said?" Wyatt asked.

"I didn't write it down Wyatt," Chris lamented.

"But what did she say…" Wyatt demanded again, louder as if his volume would gain him the answer he desired.

"It was a long prophecy. But I think it is one of the girls that are in danger…. I think it might be Melinda or Patience," Chris swallowed realizing it was the first time he had ever voiced his fear.

"So what have you been doing, what is this going to help if they are going to die?" Wyatt demanded.

"Chris is trying to do complicated magic of creating amulets for all of you, but he has to collect so many items and then perform the ritual and spells perfectly on the right night at the right time." Bianca explained.

"The sandstorm attack," Wyatt said slowly finally understanding so many of his brother's actions from the last two months.

"The gems on the altar, they were crystallite stones. Egyptians believed that the stones had magical properties that protected them against spells, curses and evil spirits." Chris explained.

"Your grandfather had a ring with two such stones, a protection ring your grandmother gave him when they were married." Bianca explained.

"How do you know that?" Wyatt glared at her.

"You'd be surprised what they put into the history books. I've been to magic school too." Bianca shrugged.

"When? When have you been to magic school?" Chris asked curiously.

"A few years back, for a few summer semesters. You two were still young, and very self-involved." Bianca shook her head.

"Really?" Wyatt demanded.

"I was also there before, it's where we meet once." Bianca pointed at Chris. A pop sounded from somewhere below before bustling of heavy footsteps.

"Wyatt? Is he home yet?" Piper called up the stairs.

"Don't tell mom." Chris spat quickly before his younger sister burst into the attic.

"You are in so much trouble," Melinda whistled.

Piper and Leo trudged into the attic behind their youngest and Piper studied the mess of boxes and noticed the Book of Shadows still sitting on the ground where it had unceremoniously fallen earlier.

"I see you boys have been behaving." Piper stated scathing as she walked slowly over to the Book, letting her heels click with every step. Wyatt and Chris both winced with each clack as they watched their mother pick up their heritage from the ground.

"Evening Mrs. Halliwell, Mr. Wyatt…" Bianca stood up and smiled at Leo.

"Bianca, why don't I make you a nice cup of tea and I can trade you embarrassing stories of Wyatt for what my sons have been up to?" Piper smiled knowingly as she tapped the book closed.

"Mom," Wyatt jumped to his feet alarmed.

"I would love to do that Mrs. Halliwell, but I really just stopped by to remind Wyatt that he has a take home exam due for his Socrates class in the morning. I know he's been preoccupied this weekend by…" Bianca's eyes wandered over to Chris but she stopped herself from pointing out the obvious.

"Yes, he isn't the only one who has been preoccupied." Piper nodded letting her maternal stare rest on Chris face. Chris rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he yawned and he sauntered towards his mother. He threw his arm around her shoulders and swooped down to peck her on the cheek.

"Sorry mommy." Chris played up his repent. Melinda made gagging sounds from across the attic but Piper just laughed.

"Peanut, you know how time traveling makes mommy worry…" Piper sighed.

"It was just a little jump a couple of decades back. Nothing happened." Chris nodded. Wyatt watched as his younger brother worked his charms on their mother.

"Really mom is buying this?" Wyatt scratched his head.

"Nothing happened Christopher! Nothing happened, do you know what could have happened, do you know what would have happened had your brother or I walked through that stupid portal and dragged your reckless bottom back into your own year…" Piper pressed her finger into Chris nose.

"I knew you wouldn't come mom. You know I didn't mean anything by it, I was just trying to be helpful and nothing happened. I'm sorry," Chris gave his mother a half smile as he attempted to look contrite again.

"Sorry, sorry you're always sorry." Piper threw up her hands. "Ever since you were a toddler, I think you learned how to say you were sorry before even mommy."

"Mommy, look I'm here. I'm fine, you'll forgive me like you always do?" Chris winked at Wyatt as he threw his arm around his mother again.

"Maybe after I put you to bed and have a restful night of knowing you are in your own bed." Piper gritted her teeth and grabbed her tall son's ear as she started pulling him towards the door. Wyatt couldn't help from bursting out laughing.

"Laugh now mister, I want to talk to you about where I just picked the book up from…" Piper pointed her free hand at Wyatt.

"Yes Ma'am, I'm going to have to go back to school about now though Mom. So love you!" Wyatt smiled brightly as he stepped back into Bianca and the two orbed out of the manor.

"Chicken." Melinda muttered.

"Ow! Mom, let go of my ear…" Chris whined.

"Absolutely not. Acting like a spoiled child, doing whatever you want…" Piper muttered.

"Dad! Do something!" Chris shouted at his father.

"Sorry Buddy might as well get a good night's sleep. I need you at magic school bright and early, you're going to be doing all the filing of the mid-quarter grades…" Leo called after his son and wife.

**October 22, 2023 **

The darkness was almost suffocating in the lofty apartment of Penelope and Coop. Penelope sat curled up at the window starring out into the city with her forehead pressed against the cold glass. The television glimmered light behind her but the sound was muted casting the middle cupid in an eerily light. She was concentrating on the flashing of the street light a few floors below her, her eyes glowing into a solid purple before she rolled her head around to stare at the shadow behind her.

"Did I wake you?" She whispered to her father.

"Why are you awake sweetheart?" Coop asked concerned as he flipped on the table lamp and switched off the television.

"Couldn't sleep." Penelope sighed turning her head back to study the lights.

"Your heart is heavy." Coop commented.

"You can feel that?" Penelope frowned at her own reflection, wondering if her father didn't magical sense anything but rather paternally notice something.

"Are you going to tell me what is bothering you?" Coop asked as he sat down next to the girl on the window seat. "Maybe I can help…"

"Things are going to get bad." Pen sighed carefully tracing her fingertips around the bright lights on the glass.

"Because you've seen it?" Coop frowned. "Visions aren't always set in stone…"

"I've been home for only hours, and since I arrived I've seen so many possibilities. All of them are just as bad as the one before…" Penelope choked.

"You're emotion about it, the stress might be affecting what you see. Like how anger and revenge tint actions…" Coop cupped his hand around Penelope's chin and gently turned her head to look at him.

"Daddy?" Penelope's voice was small and hopefully and Coop was suddenly filled with a rage. The demons that were causing his girl pain would pay for this moment, this moment that was causing her so much pain.

"What is it baby girl?" Coop finally asked after deciding to convince his wife and sisters-in-law to go demon hunting.

"Patience is dreaming about Dervin. Its painful, how much she needs him…you cannot keep my sister from one of her soul mates." Penelope stared at her father sadly.

"That delinquent is not one of my baby's soul mates." Coop stated resistibly.

"Daddy you're a cupid, you know as well as I do that he is…" Pen sighed.

"Every girl's first love is like a soul mate." Coop practically recited.

"And Dervin is Patience's and she needs him like a drug…" Pen frowned suddenly.

"It's unnatural." Coop nodded noticing that Penelope was seeing the problem.

"Dervin makes Patience stronger, maybe it's the extra power boast because she's a cupid and she's in love." Penelope shrugged.

There was a silence between father and daughter as muffled crying escaped through the walls of Patience's room. Coop let out a loud sigh as he stood ready to go calm his oldest out of a terrified sleep.

"Is there something you're not telling me?" Coop asked as he bent down to kiss Penelope on the top of the head.

"There are so many things I'm not telling you, that I'm starting to know what Chris must feel like all the time…" Pen sighed.

"Please don't turn into my neurotic nephew…" Coop begged.

"Its impossible to tell what I should tell you and what I shouldn't. What is the reality that will happen and what is the reality that might happen." Penelope groaned as she again rested her forehead to the glass.

"Try to sleep…" Coop suggested as Patience gave a faint scream. Penelope pulled her knees up to her chin and hugged them tightly.

"Pain comes in waves of red, like the lights." Penelope whispered. Coop frowned thinking he should wake his wife to deal with Penelope while he soothed Patience back to sleep. No sooner did the cupid have the thought that Phoebe appeared shuffling out of their bedroom in her robe, she stopped at the refrigerator and grabbed a crate of rocky road ice cream and two spoons. She winked at her husband as he smiled at her and ducked into Patience's room.

* * *

_Thanks all for the reviews! I apologize so much as I just noticed this story is taking me far to long to complete. I'm really gearing up here though and as long as my need to keep getting educating and making an income get in the way, then I should be finishing soon here. I'm looking for a new chapter title for the next chapter, so if I find that soon, never know there might be a chapter 16 by the end of the week. Let me know what you think... who you might want to see more of... etc. _


	16. Puppet on a String

**Puppet on a String**

_Under Cover of Darkness, The Strokes_

**October 22, 2023 **

"I need the last two, KLEA!" Nemod kicked fiercely at one of the wooden chairs around his messy table. The moon charts, the maps, and photographs were piling up under a layer of dust recently being ignored by the demons.

"Yes, I understand." Klea gave her curt response.

"Today! I need them today!" Nemod shouted as he sent flames at a smiling picture of Patience and Penelope.

"I've heard you. You've been saying the same thing for hours. You would think that you might have done something about it yourself since you've been having a tantrum since dawn." Klea crossed her arms.

"I should just kill you." Nemod stammered.

"You wouldn't. But future advice if you want to kill a minion, which I am not, then just kill them without talking about it." Klea suggested.

"You are giving me a headache." Nemod slammed his head against the table allowing dust to bounce above him and settle in his curls.

"The tonic you've been taking causes irrationality." Klea sighed.

"How would you know that?" Nemod muttered.

"I talked to the Seer and the Triad more than you do." Klea shrugged. "Now might we talk about the plan for the day?"

"Just look at my charts." Nemod groaned.

"No one but you understands these charts." Klea sighed picking up the nearest moon map and newspaper clipping with disdain.

"I don't understand how you have failed at getting Patience." Nemod snapped his head up.

"It is unexplainable how the girl has not been to Boston in weeks, it's as if she has truly broken up with that red-headed boy." Klea sat down and shifted the papers in front of her until a copy of Dervin's class schedule sat in front of her.

"His name is Dervin and the nigt-mares say she still dreams about him vividly. She must still be dating him, or at least in love with him. Maybe they are fighting?" Nemod suggested.

"No one cares what his name is." Klea snapped.

"You should. Put him in danger, a grave amount of danger. Trade his safety for her blood." Nemod smiled maliciously.

"I can call a demon to take care of that…" Klea nodded.

"No, I want you to do it." Nemod nodded.

"But what about the other one, the one younger one. She's better protected and harder to reach…" Klea argued.

"I've got someone else taking care of her." Nemod started laughing.

The sound of fairy bells rang magically throughout the halls and rooms of magic school and students started shuffling, shimmering, teleporting and levitating out of classes and into new classes.

"Miss Halliwell," Kyle Broody shouted from the board as his students hurried out of his sight. Penelope was standing at the back of the room talking to a group of boys. It was the first time many of the boys of Broody's class had ever given Penelope a second look, it was definitely the first time any of them had spoken to her.

"Miss Halliwell," Kyle attempted again. He was glaring at Skylar Heineke's well-trained hand as it was finding its way around Penelope's waist. Penelope stood in the center of the circle giggling and flirting in a manner, which was unfamiliar in the body of the quietest of the three sisters. Kyle was becoming more and more aggravated by the second and finally strode over to the group.

"Gentlemen, if you do not want to write a 500 word essay on Queen Antoinette's involvement in the French Revolution, I suggest you get to your next class in five…" Kyle started counting. The boys started scattering slowly but Skylar expertly slipped a slip of paper into Penelope's front jean pocket before he evaporated on one. Penelope turned around but Kyle coughed a second.

"Not you Penelope. I need to talk to you." Kyle sat on one of the empty school desks. Pen turned back around her high ponytail flipping about.

"Is something wrong Mr. Broody?" She asked innocently.

"I never thought you had any interest in Skyler Heineke." Kyle found himself saying before thinking about the real reason for holding one of his students back. As Penelope's teacher Kyle had no business asking about her teenage romances, but as her whitelighter the older man couldn't help being concerned with the sudden personality change.

"Everyone has interest in Skylar, Mr. Broody. He's captain of the fencing team and one of the most popular boys in our class." Pen smiled as she pulled out a lip gloss tube and started reapplying.

"How was your time in the past?" Kyle asked curiously watching the usually introverted girl demonstrate habits surprisingly reminiscent of Patience.

"You're concerned with the sudden appearance change?" Penelope asked winking at him. Kyle crossed his arms, as it wasn't just the appearance change that was disconcerting but rather the air of confidence that engulf the girl all of a sudden. Pen Halliwell had woken up after only three hours of sleep and decided to focus her nervous energy the way her older sister always had in her appearance. The middle sister straightened her hair and styled her hair in a modern twist of 60's styled high ponytail. She jumped into a breezy summer top that still maintained her hippie style and a pair of tight fitting jeans that she stole from Patience. It was the first time that Penelope had ever worn make-up to school and since the moment she arrived that morning she had been turning heads, even with her black robe on over her naturally revealing outfit.

"That's not it." Kyle finally responded.

"Things are going to change, you know it to?" Penelope smiled sadly.

"You're still failing History. That unfortunately hasn't changed Miss Halliwell." Kyle focused his attention again as the bells rang again.

"History is important than I realized before." Penelope frowned.

"I'm glad to hear it, but unfortunately that insight didn't come before mid-quarter grades. We're going to have to visit with the headmaster to come up with an academic action plan, as I also know you're failing biology and algebra." Kyle shook his head.

"But…" Pen started protesting.

"We had a deal, and even though you've been in the past for the week you were suppose to bring your grades up. I can't change the fact that you're failing to give you more time, if you understand the importance of history now you know…" Kyle started lecturing.

"All actions have consequences." Pen nodded her eyes clouding over with an insight hidden from Kyle.

"Aren't you late to your physical defense class?" Kyle asked.

"Yes sir," Penelope responded slowly before giving him a dazzling innocent look.

"You want a note?" Kyle sighed.

"I was discussing my poor performance in class with you…" Pen smiled.

"You're missing your free period to have that meeting with your uncle and I." Kyle sighed as he snapped his fingers and a note with his signature appeared in his fingers.

"Yes sir." Pen nodded. Penelope traveled down the endless hallway, skidding to a halt right before the door that lead into a large pavilion styled gym. She took a deep breath and pulled up her jeans before pushing the door open. The gym was bustling with activity, as some students were jogging, others stretching, and many practicing archery. Penelope jumped over to the short dwarf professor and handed over her note. Professor Dane grunted and pointed towards the archers, Penelope nodded turned and smiled at one of the boys that waved her over. In all the movement of the gym no one noticed the arrow until it was too late, no one even reacted quickly enough to catch Penelope as she fell forward onto the ground with an arrow protruding her shoulder blade. But once the girl fell onto the floor, that's when the chaos broke lose but Penelope closed her eyes and let the visions of the people around her dissolve into the many possibilities of their futures that were playing like flickering movies in her head.

Somewhere in one of the many back offices of the Headmaster's study Chris was cursing loudly as he dropped a stack of mid-quarter grades on his foot. He tried to flick his wrist to get the papers back up into his hands but the papers didn't move.

"Stupid magic proofed room." Chris kicked at the files. The alarm started screeching around him and before he even understood, Chris was running. He ran until he reached his father's empty office and then he ran into a swirling ball of orbs.

_Sense the pain. Just like Wyatt, see you did learn something. _Potter's voice teased Chris as rematerialized in the screaming chaos of the gym. Chris appeared right over Penelope and dropped to his knees just as his father came storming into the gym. Chris ignored the shouting and crying around him and impulsively pulled the arrow out of his cousin's shoulder blade and with a deep breath held his hand over her bleeding wound and tried to heal her. Kyle Broody was in front of Chris almost immediately.

"I don't want to rush you, but you still haven't mastered this particular skill Mr. Halliwell…" Kyle hurriedly whispered. Chris bit down on his lower lip and nodded as he removed his hand and Kyle expertly heal the girl in seconds. Chris phone started ringing as Leo clapped to get everyone's attention and evacuate the gym.

"It's not me. Everyone is fine. Finish taking your stupid test." Chris snapped his phone shut without letting Wyatt get a word in edgewise.

Wyatt growled but slipped back into his classroom and sat back down in front of his test booklet. He looked up and caught Bianca starring at him curiously.

"Another hour, ladies and gentlemen. Make sure you pace yourselves." The professor announced. Wyatt snapped his pencil in half at the announcement, a few students glared at him but soon bent over their papers again. Bianca slowly traveled up to him with a new pencil, she strategically bent down to hand it to him.

"Problem?" She whispered.

"Chris…" Wyatt started but Bianca just smiled and nodded.

"I'll go see him." Bianca winked at Wyatt before walking to the professor in charge and explaining some lie to him before leaving the classroom.

Bianca walked out of the classroom and ducked behind a large trashcan before she shimmered to the entrance lobby of Magic School. The dwarf that had once been Wyatt's nanny sat at the desk, looking official and annoyed. The lobby was not a usual entrance for anyone that was recognized as a student, or member of the school community, but Bianca had long since been a student and was recognized as a possible threat for the last few years. It appeared like the boring waiting room of any office, with a take a number dispenser and magazine rack. The extraordinary unordinary presence of the office was odd as the front to the institution that had been training young witches for the last dozen centuries.

"Name and purpose?" The dwarf asked without looking up.

"Bianca De La Guarda." Bianca responded immediately. The dwarf looked up and stared at the blonde young woman in front of her.

"Known girlfriend of Master Wyatt Halliwell?" The dwarf nodded.

"Master? Really, does his mother let you call him that…"Bianca retorted.

"Wyatt isn't here and the school is under lock down." The dwarf responded going back to her paperwork.

"I'm not here for Wyatt, I'm here because Wyatt was concerned about the school being under lock down and he couldn't come himself." Bianca explained calmly.

"Please wear your visitor pass at all times while on the school's plane. Head directly to the headmaster's office, first door when you step into the endless hallway." The dwarf handed Bianca a pass and stared at her until the young woman pinned the badge to her chest. A buzzer sounded through the room and Bianca turned to leave the main office.

"Miss De La Guarda, the Halliwells are very important to us." The dwarf warned before Bianca was out of earshot but the young woman didn't have a chance to respond before walking into the endless marble hallway just as Chris was quietly clicking the door to his father's office shut.

"Christopher, Christopher, Christopher. You know how you drive your bother crazy…" Bianca chastised mockingly. Chris jumped like a child getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar, but as he turned around his eyes squinted into a suspicious glare.

"What are you doing here?" He asked cautiously. Bianca recognized the paranoid tone in his face the stress lines in his face caught her off-guard as something more familiar than memory. Her surprised face is what soften Chris' harshness, enough for him to sigh in annoyance before closing his eyes and starting to walk.

"I think I'm going crazy." Chris barely whispered.

"What has happened?" Bianca asked keeping in step with Chris. It was impossible to know if she had heard his statement and choose to ignore him or if she had not heard anything at all.

"Penelope suffered what dad is calling a bit of a mishap with an arrow." Chris explained. Bianca looked over her shoulder to see if maybe the headmaster was following them now but no one else had come running out of the office.

"You don't think it was an accident?" Bianca nodded.

"Students can't get hurt in magic school. But Pen had an arrow pierce through her shoulder, straight through, there was blood and Broody had to heal her…" Chris grumbled trailing off as he speed up his pace.

"Upset you couldn't heal her?" Bianca asked softly as the two stepped into the empty gym.

"No," Chris snapped.

"Right." Bianca rolled her eyes. Pride was one of the many shared qualities of the Halliwell brothers. Bows and arrows were scattered everywhere still as everything had been dropped as the students were evacuated.

"What does your dad think happened?" Bianca starred at the stain of blood on the ground.

"A magical prank with the arrows meant to scare but not really meant to hurt anyone. There are too many white lighters for anyone to really think an arrow is going to cause life-threatening damage…" Chris explained as he bent down and studied the blood stained and stared across the gym.

"And you think?" Bianca frowned shaking her head as she started pointing higher than where Chris was looking. "The arrow was shot from higher than you think."

"How do you even know where I'm looking?" Chris asked annoyed.

"I am looking at your face, I can tell you're looking too low." Bianca shrugged.

"Here, do something useful." Chris shoved a bow and arrow at Bianca.

"And what exactly about these two things will make me useful right now?"

"Go to where you think it was shot from and shot me." Chris stood up and pointed at his right shoulder.

"How did that become the useful thing to do?"

"Maybe the arrows are enchanted…" Chris shrugged.

"Really? Maybe the arrows are enchanted. Don't you think it really might have just been a prank gone wrong? I mean didn't you and Wyatt once cause half the school to get warts?" Bianca crossed her arms and stared at him.

"That was not a malicious prank." Chris defended holding his hands up.

"And the plagues of Egypt that you both decided would be funny during Passover week?" Bianca nodded.

"That was poetic!" Chris laughed.

"A few arrows enchanted to actually hurt but not kill…" Bianca waved her hand trying to make Chris understand that maybe his father was right.

"Wouldn't they all be enchanted to hurt then? Shouldn't someone else been hurt? The blood…" Chris mumbled.

"You want me to try to shoot you with an arrow?" Bianca sighed resigned.

"Come on B, you won't need to try to hit me. You will hit me, so get on with it…" Chris snapped his fingers and Bianca was high above him with the bow and arrow perfectly positioned.

"This is a stupid idea!" Bianca shouted down to him.

"Stupidity is apparently a specialty of mine." Chris muttered. "Get on with it Phoenix witch… I thought you were trained for this kind of thing. Afraid you can't hit me?"

The arrow shot swiftly through the air, making a piercing noise in the still silence. Upon impact with Chris shoulder the magical arrow flew right though the boy and crashed into the ground behind him with a clang.

"Told you," Bianca laughed shimmering back next to Chris.

"If the arrow hit her, with the blood. The blood…" Chris frowned at the fallen arrow.

"I have to get back to the class your brother is in, I have to collect the tests." Bianca winked.

"Tell him he does not need to come rushing in," Chris begged as Bianca disappeared and left him standing over the fallen arrow and mumbling about blood.

A clumsily freshmen knocked over cup of deep red fruit punch onto Patience in the lunch line. HJ snapped his hand down on Patience's wrist as she jumped to attack the apologetic boy.

"Do you know how hard it is to get stains out of this top," Patience shouted at him.

"Calm down," HJ hissed at her.

"Sorry, Patience." The boy muttered scurrying away at HJ's signal.

"What is it any of your business what I do to that little punk anyway." Patience snapped.

"I thought you would be a brighter mood now that Pen is back." HJ sighed.

"This is never going to come out," Patience patted napkins onto her teal colored top now stained with red. HJ shook his head as he pushed his cousin's tray forward and picked up his own cup of pudding. The crowded lunchroom mostly ignored the exchange between the unfortunate lovestruck freshman and the beautiful junior. Everyone fell in love with Patience Halliwell at least once during their time at George Washington High School, not everyone did it as a successfully as Dervin Rogers. Patience snapped her attention back up and grabbed a slice of cheesecake to go with her already overflowing tray of food.

"Skip breakfast?" HJ asked curiously starring at her collection of food.

"No, I'm just starving." Patience shrugged.

"Right, Pen is well?" HJ nodded taking her tray as Patience pushed a pile of money at the lunch lady. Patience smiled brightly and nodded.

"And Tricia looks great…" Patience's eyes wandered to the other side of the crowded room to where Tricia sat with Melinda and a crowd of familiar friends.

"Magical even." HJ laughed. The two teens sat at a table with some of their regular friends, a few members of the track team and some girls from the volleyball team. HJ engaged in a conversation with Gretchen Harrison and Jenkins Quinn about the latest bogus homework assignment from their shared history teacher. While Patience focused mostly on eating the food in front of her and interjecting appropriate responses to the gossip about the newest backup quarter back on the football team. The sound of the teenagers suddenly increased in volume and Patience felt as if she had been dunked into a large tank of water, unable to breathe or hear pass the rushing of blood in her ears. She dropped the plastic fork messily back onto the plate of chocolate cake and started rocking back and forth. HJ reacted in an instant, jumping up to his feet and pulling her up as well. Patience heard the muttered explanation that she must be feeling faint coming from HJ before he hurriedly pulled from the many questioning eyes.

"Patience," HJ shook her shoulders trying to get her eyes to focus on him. She didn't responded as her eyes turned a frightening black that HJ had never seen before.

"Please," HJ begged in a whisper. But Patience couldn't hear him still as she started to slump in his arms, as if being dragged down by something. As the bell started to ring, Patience head snapped and suddenly she was swallowed in her own red light that transported HJ with her across the country to a destroyed dorm room.

"Patience," Dervin struggled to his fight but was pushed back with a wave of power into his dresser.

"Demon," HJ yelped as he pulled Patience down behind a turned bed. Papers flew as an explosion hit the desk and HJ slapped Patience once to try to get her to awake from her trance.

"Patience," Dervin shouted again from across the room. Klea stood dead center throwing energy balls around the room in a bored manner. It wasn't until Dervin was hit with a blast as he attempted to get to her that she sprung to her feet and fiercely sent Klea across the room and into a mirror that shattered into pieces. Patience flew to Dervin's side.

"Breaking a mirror is seven years bad luck." Dervin smiled at her as he struggled to sit up.

"Dervin," Patience shrieked as memories came flooding down on her like a waterfall tumbling onto her head. She fell on top of him and started to kiss him.

"Look, I love the kissing." Dervin said in-between the kisses.

"Patience!" HJ was shouting again as Klea had snapped back into action and had sent a fireball hurling at the young lovers. Patience flicked her hand up and the fireball froze in midair. Dervin pushed Patience up, forcing her to stand with him as HJ was hurtling things at Klea trying to keep her from attacking Patience and Dervin. Two more demons shimmered into the already crowded dorm and Dervin automatically struggled to get Patience to stand behind him.

"CHRIS!" Dervin shouted.

"WYATT!" HJ added desperately tumbling back into a fallen chair. Klea started a fire that flickered at the feet of Patience and Dervin. Wyatt appeared near the window as Patience unsuccessfully was trying to calm the flames around her feet but instead seeming to feed them more power.

"HJ get them both out of here." Wyatt commanded as he sent a flurry of his arsenal at the demons surrounding his family members. White orbs, burning fireballs, slits of fire and breaking furniture sent the room into complete chaos. HJ reached Dervin as Klea slammed into Patience and shimmered away with her.

"Patience!" Dervin trashed against HJ as Wyatt choked one of the demons magically.

"Get him back to the manor. NOW!" Wyatt shouted at HJ as Chris appeared panting near his brother.

"Patience, focus." Wyatt muttered to his younger brother. Wyatt struggled against the fighting demon as Chris and HJ both disappeared again. Chris, HJ and Dervin appeared in the same location outside a blood clinic.

"What are you doing here?" Chris snapped scanning the area for his cousin and for anyone that might have spotted three young men appearing out of thin air.

"Patience," Dervin struggled against HJ and pushed into the clinic. Patience was unconsciously hooked up to a needle and bag.

"I was heading for the manor," HJ was explaining as Chris entered the clinic. Klea shimmered in grabbing the bag of blood and ripping it off the girl without ceremony and disappearing. Blood was spurting everywhere as Dervin expertly pulled out the small butterfly needle in his girlfriend's arm and started stroking her face.

"Patience?" Dervin whispered.

"Blood." Chris sighed grimly.

"She doesn't look well…" HJ frowned. Dervin went to lift her and suddenly all the people that had been hauntingly gone moments ago came bustling to life in the clinic.

"What are you kids doing? What have you done?" A doctor was shouting at the boys. Chris snapped his fingers conjuring a post and bag of blood, like the one that Klea had taken just moments ago.

"Sorry, she's had a bad faint. She's terrified of needles, but she insisted on trying to give blood. We'll just take her on home…" Chris turned around with his brightest smile and most charming voice dripping with power. HJ nudged Dervin, who nodded understanding and slipped his arms around the girl and lifted her with some effort.

"Has she gained weight?" Dervin frowned.

"Stress eating?" HJ shrugged. "She's missed you…"

"Yes, yes. We'll get out of your hair…." Chris nodded kicking his left foot up at HJ's ankle.

"Got it." HJ snapped pushing Dervin out the door.

The four tall young men rematerialized in kitchen of Piper Halliwell, who stood stirring a boiling pot of a thick fondue substance.

"Boys," Piper gasped surprised.

"Mom, Patience is…" Chris tried to explain.

"Not healing…" HJ frowned.

"She fainted Mrs. Halliwell, she really is afraid of needles." Dervin chuckled nervously.

"Can one of you explain to me how exactly Patience got there to begin with?" Wyatt glared at his brother and cousin. Piper danced around her kitchen grabbing different ingredients and pouring them into a spoon before she hurried over to Patience, still in Dervin's arms and plopped a spoon into the girl's mouth.

"I don't know! I was busy filing in a magic proof room!" Chris stated resentfully starring at his mother.

"She took me there, she fell into a trance…" HJ began trying to explain what had happened what seemed like days ago. Patience's flapped open and she started coughing, as if coming up for air for the first time. She struggled in Dervin's arms spitting up water and then suddenly puking over her shoulder and his arms.

"I should have anticipated you doing that, let's get you cleaned up. Wyatt," Piper snapped her fingers. "Call your uncle."

"Yes ma'am." Wyatt nodded respectfully at his mother as Chris crossed his arms and fumed as he threw his body onto one of the kitchen chairs. Wyatt pulled out his cell phone, while HJ sat down next to Chris trying to understand the strange happenings of his afternoon.

"Wyatt does everything mom says, such a perfect bloody…" Chris was muttering as he slammed his fists onto the table. Wyatt clicked his phone to end the phone call as Coop appeared in the kitchen.

"What is your problem?" Wyatt demanded of Chris.

"Mostly you…" Chris rolled his eyes.

"Guys," HJ sighed weary of the fight brewing. Coop didn't even try to calm the boys but instead heading out of the kitchen in search of the second daughter of the day to suffer some disaster.

"Me, oh I'm your problem now?" Wyatt asked as he leaned nonchalantly against the kitchen counter. The kitchen door clanked open as Melinda stepped through, dropping her brother's jeep keys onto the counter.

"Oh me oh my, big brothers taking out their frustration on each other?" Melinda asked the tensioned room.

"Shut up, Melinda." Both boys snapped as Chris sparked a shot of electricity out of his index finger.

"Where did you and pretty Patience run off to after lunch?" Melinda asked HJ as she picked up an apple from the basket on the counter.

"If you had cover for me with mom when I went into the past, then maybe I would have been to Patience faster… or I would have noticed when Penelope walked into a trap." Chris growled.

"Really?" Wyatt shoved his foot against Chris chair that was leaning back. Chris knocked back but caught his own body from falling with his powers.

"Are you ever going to take responsibility for your own actions? Ever?" Wyatt demanded as he threw his arm around Chris neck and held his brother in a lock.

"Penelope was an accident." Leo sighed as he walked into the kitchen still wearing his magic school robes and looking considerably shaken.

"What exactly did happen to Penelope?" Wyatt demanded.

"Let me go," Chris struggled against Wyatt's arm and the two young men went crashing into the ground.

"Boys, that's enough." Leo snapped.

"Afternoon daddy," Melinda sprinted up to kiss her father on the cheek.

"She wants something." Wyatt commented from his spot on the ground holding Chris down.

"Do not, mind your own business Wyatt!" Melinda stuck her tongue out at her older brother.

"He's actually physically unable to do that." Chris punched Wyatt's shoulder and tumbled over him again.

"Boys, I mean it that is enough." Leo glared over at his sons again.

"Uncle Leo what happened to Penelope?" HJ asked carefully as he scooted his chair back to avoid the struggling brothers on the ground.

"Contrary to my son's belief, she was actually just a poor victim to a prank that doesn't even deemed a real prank by most standards of the school." Leo explained as he started pouring himself a cup of coffee.

"The standard set by my sons," Piper walked into the kitchen being followed by Coop, Patience and Dervin.

"Patience, how you feeling?" HJ asked concerned. Wyatt shoved Chris off of him and Chris shoved back but the young men stood up and sat back down.

"Better," Patience replied weakly, she was clutching Dervin's hand as if the boy would suddenly vanish.

"The needles make her sick." Dervin touched the girl's cheek softly. Coop arched an eyebrow as he stared at the young couple.

"I've missed you." Patience whispered as she placed her head in the nook of Dervin's shoulder.

"It's been dangerous to have them sealed from each other." Leo commented.

"They attacked him because of her." Wyatt nodded.

"The demons had been following me for the last week, waiting for Pat." Dervin nodded.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Chris asked surprised.

"I wasn't sure and I thought they would leave me be until Patience showed up again, but it didn't seem like Coop was budging much on the sealing…" Dervin trailed off mid-thought avoiding the staring of Coop.

"How does it feel for someone to knowing keep themselves in danger without feeling the need to tell you?" Wyatt mocked Chris.

"They attacked him because they knew I would come." Patience nodded.

"But did they know that they were sealed?" HJ asked.

"I don't it." Leo shook his head.

"But how did Patience know?" Chris wondered.

"She fell into a trance." HJ started to explain.

"I felt when they attacked him, it was like I was being thrown into the ocean." Patience explained.

"The souls of two lovers, no matter what, are interconnected." Leo sighed.

"We have some experience in that, it was natural for Patience to snap her sealing when she sensed Dervin was in danger." Piper nodded. Leo slipped his arm around Piper's waist as Piper stirred her boiling pot every few seconds. The boys sat at the table, while Melinda jumped up onto the counter realizing important conversation was going to unfold. Patience and Dervin stayed standing, leaning against the wall with Coop hovering around them ignoring the conversation as he studied them.

"And that's how Nemod got more blood." Chris grumbled.

"Blood, blood? Wyatt what is he talking about?" Piper demanded.

"That's why Chris has such a complex mom, you immediately ask Wyatt…" Melinda rolled her eyes.

"Melinda," Leo shook his head.

"I'm not sure what he's talking about mom," Wyatt shrugged starring at Chris expectantly.

"Nemod has been collecting our blood." Melinda interjected.

"The arrow in Pen's shoulder and the blood of Patience…." Chris sighed trying to think while explaining.

"He got Chris' blood the night of the party…" HJ nodded.

"And mine and Melinda's when Melinda was in the underworld." Wyatt agreed.

"But that's hardly all of you…" Leo said slowly.

"The night of the party, Pandora sliced her hand open with a knife." Dervin suddenly added.

"What?" Wyatt and Chris snapped their heads up.

"It seemed normal enough when it happened." Dervin nodded slowly. "And Tricia was bleeding that night too…"

"The other night, when Primrose came home from school she had a cut." Patience gasped.

"That was an accident." Piper pointed out.

"It was." Coop muttered rejoining the conversation upon the mention of another one of his girls.

"How do you know?" HJ questioned.

"The statue came to life…" Piper started to explain.

"Like a poorly executed prank?" Wyatt stared at his father.

"No one is suppose to get hurt in magic school." Leo shook his head.

"No one can die, hurting people is an easy enough magical loophole." Chris explained.

"Besides those are stupid pranks." Melinda retorted.

"Dervin can't go back to Boston." Piper stated in a matter-of-a-fact tone starring at the blue eyes of the young man across the room.

"But I have classes." Dervin tried to protest.

"It's too dangerous for the next few days, until at least Halloween." Piper shook her head.

"He'll stay with us." Patience clutched Dervin.

"He will not." Coop shook his head.

"He can stay here, in Wyatt's room." Piper nodded.

"The collection of blood can be used in a variety of spells and power boasting enchantments." Leo scratched his head, not giving an opinion on the protection of Dervin beyond clearly agreeing with his wife.

"Maybe to protect?" Wyatt scrunched up his nose.

The grandfather clock in the foyer struck six and Chris sprang to his feet. The rest of his family stare at him expecting of some revelation about the underworld or the rising source but he just winked at them.

"I have a date." He explained as he orbed up to his room.

"Are you serious?" Wyatt shouted at his missing brother.

"Love is as important as revenge." Patience whispered.

The conversation continued as Piper kept making dinner and Coop struggled to pry Patience away from Dervin enough to get her home. As the chimes of the grandfather clock struck a half past six, Wyatt climbed up the stairs to find his younger brother combing his short hair into place.

"I hate that you cut my hair." Chris commented when he sensed the blue eyes that had been watching him his whole life on the back of his head.

"How could you see anything through the curtain mess that was constantly in your eyes?" Wyatt sighed.

"I just could and now I look like a damn boy scout." Chris complained.

"It will grow back. You know we have to keep talking about this," Wyatt sighed.

"Talk," Chris shrugged as he button up his white shirt. Wyatt ran his hand around his chin as he stared up at the ceiling in thought, starring up to where the book of shadows was as a hint to Chris to maybe stay in this evening.

"Dad thinks Penelope getting hit with that arrow was a complete accident." Wyatt stated obviously.

"Dad has been known to be wrong. Remember how he thought you crashed his restored classic truck?" Chris winked.

"You still owe me for that, that was a month of my life that I was stuck in my room." Wyatt remembered.

"I was already grounded, another month would have made that unbearable. I was just trying to practice driving…" Chris shrugged.

"You're great at the distracting, but I have things to talk to you about." Wyatt snapped his fingers.

"Like what?" Chris laughed pushing his way around Wyatt's body in the doorway. Chris wandered into his room grabbing his wallet from his messy desk.

"Dervin and Patience for starters. Then about this blood, and finally about the prophecy you've been avoiding telling me more about since last night…" Wyatt sighed.

Dervin Rogers finally tumbled up the stairs, muttering under his breathe.

"Can you two do something about your uncle and maybe about your mother?" Dervin asked frustrated.

"Our mother? You want us to do something about our mother how?" Wyatt asked over his shoulder.

"The mothering, I don't need mothering…" Dervin gritted his teeth.

"Yeah, good luck on that." Chris smiled widely as he disappeared into orbs.

"I wasn't done talking to you!" Wyatt shouted at the empty room.

"He was done talking to you…" Dervin stated.

There was a line forming outside of P3 when Chris appeared in the back alley dressed to impress and scanning the crowd for the mysteriously beautiful Verity Vanguard. The hybrid oracle witch was standing underneath the lamp post, letting the light shine down on her golden turning black hair and glittering mocha skin. Chris admired her from afar for a second, taking in the odd golden dress she wore that he seriously suspected was fabric made from fairy hair. He jogged up to her and kissed her on the cheek as a greeting, testing out her mood before he attempted any other kind of kissing.

"Hey beautiful." He smiled.

"Is that what I am, a trophy to you?" She asked scathingly. Chris stepped back and flicked his hand behind his back before pulling out a small white plate with a pastry sitting on top of it.

"Sweet from ancient Greece?" He asked smiling brightly at her. Verity glared at him a moment before she broke down and smiled softly shaking her head.

"I've told you before that when you conjuring these they don't taste the same." She sighed letting her dainty fingers dance around the pastry before picking it up. Chris shrugged letting the plate evaporate in his hands.

"As I've never tasted it in Ancient Times because you know I'm expressly forbidden from time traveling…" Chris trailed off seeing the flash of gold in Verity's onyx eyes. The set of her mouth was turning down ready for a new fight about the recent trip Chris took into the past the young man tipped forward and kissed her.

Verity let the kiss linger but eventually she pushed away from the handsome Halliwell in front of her. Chris frowned but shrugged accepting the movement from the girl.

"Shall we, the concert is about to start…" Chris held out his arm for her.

"Aren't you too young to get into your mother's club?" Verity questioned harshly. Chris was surprised by her tone but shrugged it off again smiling determined to win back the good graces of his girlfriend.

"Privileges of being the owner's adorable son," Chris winked.

"You're going to orb us in?" Verity laughed. Chris winked again and strode them along to the alleyway where he walked to the backdoor and walked into the club with the oracle on his arm. One of the local bands was performing and Chris stayed attentive and loving all night to his date, though he was met with a cold and harsh response unnatural to Verity on any other regular occasion. Chris did not recognize the struggle of Verity to build up her courage to do something unpleasant. As the band finished the last song, dedicating it to their gorgeous fan Verity, she found the last bit of her strength in the grand gesture of her boyfriend.

"Chris," She coughed. Chris cocked his head back to stare at her expecting some kind of gratitude but instead finding eyes full of hurt.

"Are you alright?" He asked suddenly turning his entire body to her. The two young people were standing near the stage, trying to maintain a safe distance between them and the employees of the club that might recognize Chris.

"I want you to know something, before you won't listen to me anymore." Verity choked.

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked puzzled. His hand wandered to grab Verity's elbow in concern for her.

"Listen to me for just a moment." Verity placed her hands on either side of Chris face and made his green eyes focus on her.

"Verity, you are acting terribly strange." Chris muttered.

"The nine days leading to the rise of the new source are going to test you, each of you, and they will not be easy days. They will be painful, for pain creates the path to darkness unlike any other. Know that I am truly sorry for this, because I thought I could love you…." Verity stated sadly starring at his face carefully while she said the words. Chris was blinking quickly trying to understand what Verity meant by her words.

"You don't seem like you're giving me a prophecy…" He tried to understand.

"I'm not…" She whispered unable to help herself she kissed him again. The kiss only lasted a second before she pulled away and let go of his face.

"Verity?" Chris questioned.

"We're not going to last Chris. I don't think we should waste our time anymore." Verity stated in a monotone, stepping away from the boy.

"What?" Chris tilted his head and fixed his eyes on hers.

"I don't want to compete with your family for your attention anymore. I don't always want to feel like I'm second-rate. I don't want to fight with Bianca De La Guarda over you…" Verity spat angrily.

"Are you jealous of B? She's dating Wyatt you know that…" Chris almost laughed.

"You are so busy trying to get your own family to love you that you don't even notice when someone else is trying to love you. I don't want to date someone like you anymore Chris." Verity kept explaining as she stepped further and further away.

"Verity, wait…" Chris started understanding what was happening and took a step closer to the retreating girl.

"I think we should end it here and now, before either of us get to attached. Or really before I get more attached, you have always had other interests…" Verity said suggestively, emphasizing the idea more and more desperately.

"Wait," Chris demanded again shoving against a larger man as he stretched out his hand to Verity.

"I don't think I will. Don't look for me Chris Halliwell…" Verity shook her head and closed her eyes.

"Verity, seriously wait a second…" Chris shouted over the cheering of the crowd around him. But Verity vanished behind people and Chris felt that she had dissolved into thin air. He felt the crowd push against him, tightening their hold on him as he stared at where Verity had last stood in his sight.

_You didn't even love her. _The voice of Potter mocked Chris' despair. The music started pounding again as the band came onstage for an encore and Chris struggled against the crowd and pushed his body onto the bar. Without making eye contact or being noticed in general the young man expertly swung his arm over the bar and snatched a bottle of the nearest liquor. Chris stumbled around people and found his way to the back of the bar, to an old door that led to a room he had once resided in before his own time.


	17. Don't Underestimate

**Don't Underestimate**

_Rolling in the Deep, Adele _

**October 23, 2023 **

Piper was sitting at the dinning room table with a frayed map of the city sitting in front of her. She had a cup of steaming coffee and her cell phone lying on the table around the map as she clutched a scrying crystal in her right hand.

"He's not over there then?" Piper sighed at the phone.

"Sorry Piper, I haven't seen him since I left the manor last night." Coop yawned back into the phone.

"And Phoebe is still asleep?" Piper asked.

"It's 6 AM Piper, the sun is barely awake." Phoebe snapped into the phone.

"I didn't mean to wake you but he didn't come home last night…" Piper explained.

"Wasn't he going on a date? Don't you think that he might still be on that date?" Phoebe grumbled annoyed at her older sister's paranoid tendencies.

"No. I don't." Piper responded immediately.

"Why?" Phoebe questioned loudly over the phone.

"I don't know Phoebe, I just have a maternal instinct." Piper retorted letting the crystal swing.

"Piper, I know that he is driving you crazy but he's a grown up." Phoebe tried to explain.

"He's my grown up baby…" Piper argued as the crystal dropped and her husband walked into the kitchen.

"Piper," Leo sighed.

"Tell her to be reasonable Leo," Phoebe yawned into the speakerphone.

"Honey, what are you doing?" Leo trudged over to the coffee pot.

"Your son didn't come home last night," Piper started. Leo rolled his eyes anytime either of the boys or Melinda did anything that Piper deemed wrong they were always suddenly his children.

"He was on a date." Leo answered as he looked around hoping that in her maternal panic Piper had decided to bake something for breakfast. Unfortunately nothing fresh was in sight on the counter, so Leo grabbed a day old cookie that was still left and went over to sit by his wife.

"Would he and his date still be at P3?" Piper asked looking down at her map.

"Maybe," Leo shrugged.

"Can I get off the phone now?" Phoebe whined from the phone.

"Good bye Phoebe," Leo tapped the off button on the phone before his wife could object. Piper glared at the spot on the map for a second before glaring up at her husband.

"Even when he goes on his secret demon hunts, which is all the time lately, he still comes home before I get up…" Piper sighed.

"He's not a child anymore Piper." Leo ran his hand over the left sigh of his face before yawning again.

"But he knows I worry." Piper responded stubbornly.

"Maybe you should worry a little less when the boy is on a date. He isn't demon hunting." Leo suggested.

"There is a source of all evil rising and Christopher seems to be intricately involved in the whole process. Don't tell me I'm overreacting." Piper held up her hand.

"He's on a date Piper," Leo sighed.

"I want to put all the kids in magic school until Halloween, but its seems they won't even be safe there with what happened with Penelope and Primrose." Piper whispered.

"I still think those had to be accidents, flukes. You know demons can't get into magic school, you and the girls did all the protection spells yourselves and the Elders coated…." Leo trailed off in thought. Piper started dialing another number into her cell phone as she dropped the crystal.

"Who are you calling?" Leo asked.

"Wyatt. Unless you want to drive down to the club and drag your irresponsible child back home?" Piper asked almost sweetly.

"I have walked in on enough unfinished dates for a lifetime." Leo laughed. Piper lifted her eyebrows but smiled despite herself and pressed her phone up to her ear.

"Morning sweetheart," Piper said softly. Leo shook his head starring at the kitchen clock that flashed only minute pass six.

"I know it's early baby, I need you to go get your brother." Piper said softly. Leo could hear the sharp alertness that suddenly overcame Wyatt.

"No he's not in the underworld. I found him already, apparently he's at P3." Piper explained.

"Your father thinks so too…" Piper interjected in the middle of something Wyatt was explaining.

"Why don't we just wait for him to stumble in on his own?" Leo nodded. Piper waved at him to quiet down.

"I know it's early pumpkin. But if you could do this for your worried mother maybe you can save me from the more gray hairs." Piper coaxed. Leo shook his head smiling at his wife's ability to use maternal guilt so effectively with her sons.

"I'll even make your favorite pancakes, I'm going to start making them right now." Piper jumped out of her chair to emphasis her point. Leo knew that Wyatt agreed when Piper snapped shut her cell phone and started pulling out bowls.

"Chris is going to be furious." Leo sighed.

"I'll make his favorite pancakes too." Piper conceded.

Wyatt sat up and ran both his hands through his hair as he yawned. The dark circles under his eyes were getting more distinct and the lack of sleep made the young man sluggish. The door swung open and Bianca tip toed in holding two cardboard coffee cups in each hand. Wyatt threw his hand down into a pile of shirts and pulled a grey t-shirt over his head without looking back at who had entered.

"Refusing to sleep well still?" Bianca sighed annoyed as she noticed the dream catcher sitting on the ground near the door.

"I slept." Wyatt grumbled.

"Want to tell me what the nightmares are about?" Bianca asked softly as she handed over his coffee.

"Would love to but mom called…" Wyatt waved his cell phone for a second before tucking it into his pocket and accepting the coffee.

"What did Chris do now?" Bianca smiled knowingly.

"Didn't come home last night." Wyatt shrugged.

"You don't sound worried?" Bianca frowned.

"He was going on a date." Wyatt responded.

"With Verity?" Bianca asked still frowning.

"Well yeah." Wyatt nodded. "Time must have gotten away from him is all, but mom is worried…"

"Has your brother ever let time get away from him?" Bianca asked curiously.

"Of course he has, he's always overbooking himself. Besides he hadn't spent time with the little oracle witch of his in weeks, at least not proper time." Wyatt shrugged again.

"You're going to go get him for your mother? Even though you think he might just be with Verity?" Bianca shook her head.

"The kid should learn not to worry mom so much. If I don't go get him, she's going to show up… which would you prefer?" Wyatt smiled winking at her. He bent down and kissed her on the forehead.

"Thanks for the coffee." He whispered before he disappeared into orbs. Bianca set down her coffee and picked up the dream catcher carefully placing it back up above the bed.

Chris was leaning against the wall of the small room, lazily throwing darts at the little dartboard across the room. An empty bottle of liquor sat at his feet and another bottle was half consumed near his right hand. There was knocking at the door and Chris knew it had to be one of his family members, as it was far too early for any of the bar employees to be in yet.

"Go away." Chris shouted angrily. The knocking started again but Chris ignored it as he took another swig from the dark bottle and threw another dart at the board.

"I'm coming in!" Wyatt shouted a warning, walking into the small room with one of his hands over his eyes. "Everyone decent?"

"That depends on what kind of decent we're talking about, doesn't it?" Chris rolled his eyes. Wyatt sensing exhaustion and sarcasm immediately removed his hand and stared around the small room.

"What are you doing?" He asked carefully.

"Throwing a pity party, what does it look like I'm doing?" Chris snapped. Wyatt frowned kicking the empty bottle on the ground and starring at the mess that was Chris on the bed. The older brother didn't make any sudden movements but slowly sat down on the edge of the tiny cot Chris was curled up on.

"What are we celebrating?" Wyatt asked.

"My successful end of another relationship." Chris held up the half empty bottle towards the ceiling, saluting his accomplishment before taking another drink.

"Why don't you tell me what happened? Maybe share some of your victory juice with me and you can have some of this…" Wyatt traded his coffee cup with the bottle. Chris shrugged emotionless as he sipped from the coffee cup. Meanwhile, Wyatt placed the liquor on the ground.

"Nothing happened. I'm just a screw up." Chris suggested.

"Well I've been saying that for years." Wyatt shoved his little brother playfully. Chris fell over letting the impact actually move his torso. Wyatt frowned.

"Have you slept at all?" Wyatt questioned suddenly.

"Sleeping isn't very comforting these days." Chris yawned. Wyatt growled a bit as suddenly Chris puked over the side of the cot.

"Regretting that wine cooler now are we kid?" Wyatt mocked as he smacked his hand against Chris' back. Chris muttered something unintelligible to his older brother but Wyatt just laughed.

"How about we get you into your own bed?" Wyatt suggested as he orbed them back to the manor. Wyatt struggled with his fighting brother to put the young man to bed, setting up a dream catcher that was lying underneath the bed before slipping out of the room. Chris knocked the dream catcher down with disgruntled force before falling into an exhausting sleep.

Melinda slammed into her brother as she stepped out of the bathroom. Wyatt looked down at her and frowned.

"Want to wear a little more shirt with that skin?" He demanded.

"It's a halter top Wyatt, I'm sure you've seen one of one of the ten girls you've actually dated." Melinda shrugged.

"Are you even allowed to wear that to school?" Wyatt demanded as the two siblings trotted down the stairs.

"Are you the dress code police now too?" Melinda shoved Wyatt's hand away from the tie at her neck. Piper was flipping chocolate chip pancakes and Wyatt waved one of the banana nut pancakes into his mouth without much effort.

"You do not need to use magic to feed yourself." Piper chastised.

Wyatt mumbled back some sort of defense that was lost in his full mouth. Piper stared up at him with her eyebrows arched, silently lecturing him for his lack of manners. Melinda took the opportunity to run to the opposite side of the room and sit in the empty chair between her father and Dervin Rogers.

"Where is your brother?" Piper asked looking around the kitchen as if her younger son would suddenly appear.

"Sleeping upstairs mom, I wouldn't bother him much today. Just let him be?" Wyatt pleaded on behalf of Chris. Leo studied his son from across the room and spoke before his wife.

"What happened son?" Leo asked carefully.

"He had a rough night." Wyatt shrugged not wanting to share his brother's personal business with his parents and sister. Chris wasn't just secretive about his demon hunting these days, the middle child kept most of his life close to his chest.

"Well if he didn't go running around the under world like a turkey with a death wish…" Piper started shaking her head and walking towards the stairs where Wyatt stood.

"Mom, he wasn't fighting demons. He was on a date." Wyatt sighed trying to keep his mother from waking Chris. Dervin slurped his coffee and coughed.

"She broke up with him then?" He asked. Piper, Leo, Melinda and Wyatt's eyes all turned to stare at the young mortal in their mist.

"Spending too much time with Patience?" Melinda mocked him.

"It was bound to happen," Dervin shrugged.

"Is that true Wyatt?" Piper demanded. Wyatt nodded as he shrugged his way past his mother and grabbed another pancake.

"Was he drunk when you found him?" Leo sighed knowing the answer but hoping he was wrong. Wyatt nodded again avoiding eye contact with both parents.

"He's asleep now. Let the kid sleep for a bit?" Wyatt pleaded again.

"I don't like him drinking to numb his emotions, I should have a talk with him…" Leo stared at the ceiling.

"Those talks have always worked with Chris." Melinda rolled her eyes.

"Melinda, unless you have something productive to add…" Piper started.

"I know mom, just eat my breakfast." Melinda muttered something else under her breath that only left Dervin giving her a funny look.

"He's got a lot going on in that stupid neurotic head of his, let him have a day of wallowing. If he even lets himself have it…" Wyatt fixed his blue eyes on his mother's brown. Piper's mouth thinned into a small smirk but she nodded reluctantly.

"I have to go to work though and your father has to go to magic school…" Piper worried.

"I could stay home from school?" Melinda piped up suddenly.

"No." Was the uniformed response from both her parents.

"You would just spend the day teasing him, anyway. We all know you too well sis." Wyatt winked at her.

"I'm guessing I have to hang out here anyway for the day?" Dervin questioned the group.

"You can't exactly go out and be an easy target, no." Piper nodded.

"I'll call Wyatt if Chris needs something." Dervin shrugged.

"Or if he tries to leave? You'll call me, if he tries to leave?" Piper started scribbling down her cell number for Dervin. Wyatt started arguing with Piper but she wouldn't hear anything else as Melinda and Leo started scrambling to get ready for the rest of the day as the grandfather clock struck 7:30.

It would be another half hour before Chris was deep enough into his sleep cycle to start tossing and turning in his full size bed. Beads of sweat started to form on his forehead and muttered fears escaped his paling lips in whispers.

_Verity glittered like a precious gem sitting on top of her desk, waiting for Chris to walk into her classroom for the first time. Chris ran into the classroom searching for supplies from one of the closets not stopping once to notice the girl on the desk, until she started whistling. Verity had seen Chris coming to her classroom, she introduced him to herself before she bothered to tell Chris who she was, an oracle witch who understood you she had smiled at him. The memory played out slowly in Chris' dream, letting him savor every moment that had started the path he had found himself falling into as soon as he leaned over the desk and kissed Verity Vanguard for the first time. _

_ Suddenly he stood at P3 the night before, in front of Verity as she explained how he had screwed up their relationship. A parade of other girls danced around them, at first as just faces in the crowd before the crowd became only girls Chris had once dated. Most of the girls never went on more than one date with Chris, some he had dumped but many of them had dumped him. Chris had a notorious reputation as a player among the girls at his high school, but in reality he just didn't have the talent of fostering long-term relationships. The girls in the crowd started chanting the reasons why Chris was such a bad boyfriend, causing the dream boy to run up the stairs of the club and out onto the empty street of San Francisco. _

_ "Doesn't seem like your very good at relationships there mate," Potter stood against one of the lamppost. He was tall, dark and mysterious as he pulled on a fashionable fedora as he spoke. Chris gasped for breath as he stared back at the club door more concerned with the girls chasing him than the figment of a man he had been hearing in his head for days. _

_ "You and Wyatt should learn to be more concerned when a stranger is talking to you while you're awake." Potter commented. The statement got Chris' attention, how did this figment of his imagination know anything about what his brother was hearing in his head. _

_ "Who are you?" Chris asked. _

_ "Oh you know." Potter smiled as he looked up letting the shadow cross his face at a perfect angle. "You dream much more cinematically than Wyatt, you know." _

_ "Are you in Wyatt's dreams too? You are working with the nigt-mares then?" Chris demanded. _

_ "Are you really so concerned with how you are unlovable? What part of your childhood gave you that impression?" Potter questioned. _

_ "With Wyatt… and even Melinda…" Chris stuttered trying to explain. But the words weren't even coming out whole as the street started swirling around Chris and Potter disappeared as quickly as he had appeared. _

_ Bianca was sitting next to Chris on the park bench at the Palace of Fine Arts. Chris had only ever been there on a school field trip in his present life but he recognized its importance in his dream. Bianca looked more wholesome in his dream than Chris had ever seen her, in a red long sleeved shirt and a washed jean mini skirt. Her hair was a more natural brown and not the metallic blonde she had settled on recently. _

_ "Here." Bianca commented. _

_ "This is our spot Bianca," Chris found himself responding. Just as the words formed he seemed to truly remember the memory and the park around him deteriorated quickly. The stone angel was cracked and the podium columns had fallen over and everything looked as if a massive attack in a war had taken place. The reality struck Chris harshly as he recited the rest of his words. _

_ "No matter what he's done to it, marry me?" Chris let his hand guide a ring onto Bianca's hand without waiting for her response. _

_ "On one condition, you come back to me safely?" Bianca asked starring down at her ring. Chris hands were protectively clasping her knees as he leaned towards her on the bench. _

_ "Have I ever let you down before?" Chris smiled at her. The park started to change again and Chris slumped forward and immediately had a sharp pain in his chest. He was still wearing a black shirt, though a much nicer one than the one he had worn while proposing to Bianca. He was alone in the park with a pain that echoed with a pain unknown to him. Bianca appeared in something much more similar to the clothing she strutted around in these days, black revealing leather. She started explaining how she needed to drain the rest of his powers and take him back to the future. But Chris wasn't listening to the words, he was just staring at the girl in his dream thinking about his words in the previous vision memory. _

_ "Have I really never let you down?" Chris forced the question, outside of his scripted dialogue that he could feel boiling. Bianca starred at him confused but Chris was violently pulled from the dream and fell into a dark battle raging around him. He was younger, much younger and he watched as his mother was dealt a mortal blow and she died… _

Dervin was shaking Chris forcefully and didn't succeed in waking the older boy until he pushed him off the bed. Chris woke with a start and all the items of his desk flew off the desk and smack into him on the ground.

"Damn it." Chris cursed harshly as he sat up. "What is your problem?"

"You've been sleeping for hours, I thought you might want some food before the rest of your family got back." Dervin shrugged.

"Hours, what time is it?" Chris yawned.

"What were you dreaming of?" Dervin questioned.

"Why?" Chris demanded suspiciously.

"You were screaming quite a bit dude." Dervin held out his hand to help Chris get up off the floor.

"Yeah…" Chris muttered. He sat on the bed holding his head.

"Aspirin?" Dervin held out two little white pills in the palm of his hand. Chris took them and Dervin pointed to the glass of water on the night table. Chris nodded grateful and swallowed the pills immediately and threw himself back onto his bed and stared at the ceiling.

"Have you ever let Patience down?" Chris asked suddenly.

"Probably, you know Patience changes her mind like she changes her shirts. Its easy to let someone like that down pretty constantly." Dervin laughed. Chris yawned again being overcome with exhaustion yet again as his head pounded.

"Did you love the girl?" Dervin questioned as he leaned against the desk and crossed his arms.

"You spend too much time with Pat." Chris spat back.

"Hey I don't hate a girl I've never meet…" Dervin defended.

"She did hate her." Chris nodded.

"Said there was something off about her and Patience was convinced she wasn't right for you." Dervin nodded.

"How does Patience know I wasn't right for her?" Chris asked.

"Judging someone's rightness is more about how much you care for the person you are talking about than Verity in this case." Dervin explained.

"I've let down every girl that I've gotten close to." Chris sighed.

"Every girl? Not being a bit dramatic there? I've learned that Halliwells tend to blow things slightly out of proportion." Dervin chuckled.

"I was a terrible person to my first, you know, maybe I cursed myself." Chris thought out loud.

"I doubt you were that terrible…" Dervin responded.

"Oh no, I was. I used her to win a bet and then felt so ashamed I didn't talk to her again, let her actually think I didn't have any feelings for her…" Chris commented.

"And did you have feelings for her?" Dervin asked.

"I did… God, if mom had known she would have skinned me alive. Well maybe she would have blamed Wyatt, it was his idea after all." Chris coughed.

"Boys will be boys." Dervin nodded.

"Maybe I should try to win Verity back!" Chris jumped up and orbed away before Dervin could stop him.

Chris appeared in a classroom of students starring at him with a mixture of bemused, surprised and disinterested faces.

"Mr. Halliwell," A youthful familiar nervous voice screeched. Chris looked around confused, ignoring the girl floating near him that was standing in front of the classroom. The fairy bells started sounding and the students filed out of the classroom, ignoring the most often seen of Piper and Leo's children. Chris had lost most of his superstardom on campus around the age of 15, though it was still undeniable how much attention he garnered from the female student body.

"She put her in resignation this morning Chris, I'm sorry."

Chris turned to look at Caitlin for the first time since entering the room. Caitlin was a senior at Magic School and had been attending the institution for the last seven years. She had established history with the Halliwell brothers.

"Teaching the class then are you now?" Chris asked.

"Just subbing until the headmaster, your father, finds a replacement. It was rather sudden…" Caitlin stumbled on her words. It had been at least two years since she had spoken directly to Chris Halliwell.

"Do you know if Verity left any word about where she was going?" Chris asked breaking his intense eye contact and glancing around the room again. He caught sight of Penelope, sitting in the second to last row in a fancy jacket, that he was sure belonged to Patience, with her bright purple eyes starring at him.

"No…" Stuttered Caitlin, "I have to go Chris… Sorry, again."

Caitlin left without Chris even giving her another glance. Penelope shook her head at her cousin, letting the crimped styling of her hair knock into her cheeks.

"What did you do to Caitlin Sheehan?" Penelope questioned.

"What did you do to your hair?" Chris asked back confused. The silence between the two cousins last at least a minute before Penelope stood up and Chris realized, much like the students of Magic School the day before that little Penelope was no longer a child.

"Do you know where Verity is, I really need to talk to her." Chris asked urgently.

"Caitlin was telling you the truth, though you wouldn't recognize what that sounds like…" Penelope commented off-handedly. An alert went off in Chris mind, telling him to pay attention to the changed attitude in his usually mild mannered cousin, to question her sarcasm but his judgment was clouded.

"Have you come up with an action plan, to stop the rising source?" Penelope was finishing her question before Chris even realized it was being asked.

"The source is going to rise, there is nothing we can do about it right? I might as well focus on my crumbling relationship…" Chris snapped.

"Sorry to tell you this Chris, but that relationship is already in ruins." Penelope sighed as she started walking out of the room, noticing that Chris wasn't paying her an inch of attention.

"By the way, you look like a drunkard. No way to win a girl back…" Penelope shook her head but clapped her hands once and rain engulfed Chris. Penelope disappeared into the hallway as Chris was drowning in water for seconds until the water stopped and he stood clad in a new, flattering outfit and appeared ten times more refreshed than he had been when he arrived. But not even the bells that sounded in alarm to Chris about his young cousin's exertion of power distracted the young man from his own destructive path.

Phoebe arrived at her family loft as the sun was setting over the city, dropping her keys with a loud clunk in a crystal bowl in hopes of getting attention from one of her three daughters. But not one of the three daughters of Phoebe and Coop looked up or disengaged from their conversations with Dervin Rogers. Dervin sat on the couch with Patience's legs stretched out over his lap, while Primrose was secured over his shoulder and Penelope though sitting on a separate couch was leaning forward chattering on to the boy and her sisters. Phoebe tried coughing but only her husband looked up from the boiling pot on the stove and smiled at her sadly.

"We're not as interesting as Dervin." Coop laughed at his wife as he leaned down to give her a kiss. Phoebe smiled at the little scene, happy to see the boy back in her living room. Despite everything, Phoebe like her daughters had developed an attachment to the young mortal man on her couch with his love for nineties pop culture and mechanic skills.

"Mrs. Halliwell!" Dervin looked up and smiled brightly. Trying to get up from the couch without dropping Prim and pry Patience off of him so that he could greet the mother of the girls properly.

"Dervin, how are you sweetheart?" Phoebe laughed.

"Great, just great. Happy to be…" Dervin started saying but Patience began tickling him and Primrose threw her arms around his mouth. Phoebe winked at him understandingly and turned back to her husband.

"He thinks he's home…" Phoebe whispered.

"A problem I don't really want to think about today." Coop shrugged.

"Maybe it's not a problem." Phoebe laughed.

"Maybe." Coop repeated not sounding convinced.

"Do you have a movie planned for us tonight?" Phoebe asked excitedly as she walked over to the couches.

"I would love to take Patience out for a date, actually…" Dervin asked carefully as he held Primrose to his side, and held Patience at bay with the other hand.

"She's still grounded." Coop retorted.

"Is she really?" Phoebe frowned counting on her fingers.

"Until the end of October." Penelope nodded.

"Oh shut up, just because you don't go on dates doesn't mean you should…" Patience hissed at her sister.

"Patience," Dervin poked at her. "Well it's good I plan for these situations, how about we watch a little cult classic that is about enjoying a night…"

"Enjoying a night?" Phoebe questioned.

"Can't Hardly Wait, starring a then little know Jennifer Love Hewitt." Dervin explained.

"Little known? Reading the descriptions of the inter-webs again are we?" Phoebe criticized.

"Inter-webs?" Primrose crinkled her nose up not understanding.

"Your mom is mocking me while pointing out that not everything I read online is always the most accurate…" Dervin winked at the youngest girl.

"Dervin," Coop sighed as he started setting portions onto plates.

"Yes sir?" Dervin perked up.

"Come on over here and help me set the table, while the girls say hello to their mother…" Coop directed. Dervin nodded and easily slipped off the couch to be replaced by Phoebe. The young man walked up to the counter and swung around to the drawer where he knew the placemats and silverware was kept.

"Dervin, you understand that until Halloween you and Patience can not. Actually must not, go out alone in the city. It is dangerous, very dangerous for both of you." Coop stated sternly, though quietly enough to keep his family from overhearing.

"Are we always going to have to hide, isn't Patience just as much of a witch as your wife?" Dervin questioned carefully not making eye contact as he walked to the table.

"She is a young, inexperienced, emotionally irresponsible witch." Coop corrected.

"So she's like walking around with unstable dynamite in a mine field?" Dervin suggested.

"Taking a class on the war ridden countries of South and Central America?" Coop asked trying to keep a straight face.

"Or I watched a documentary on the fields of Colombia…" Dervin shrugged.

"Do you understand me?" Coop asked seriously as Dervin started collecting plates and passing them to the table.

"Yes sir, I understand. But I can not control your daughter anymore than you can…" Dervin muttered the last part of his statement only half hoping Coop heard him. The family gathered at the table, sitting and engaging in a normal family meal of discussing their day and teasing each other lovingly over the minute details of their semi-normal lives.

Down the coast, as the bright full moon sparkled above the campus of the university Wyatt and Bianca were walking away from a tiny burrito shack on the beach. The couple was holding hands and silently enjoying the evening, as the glittering of the waves crashing onto the sand grew into a shape oddly familiar.

"What raging college party are we heading to?" Chris asked as he jogged up to the couple.

"Chris?" Bianca asked confused.

"What are you doing here?" Wyatt stared at his brother confused.

"I just wandered around the entire globe big brother, looking for a girl. Girl didn't want to be found, left me a message with a troll. Yeah, a troll of all creatures…" Chris explained as he pulled out an ancient shell from his belt loop and started drinking from it.

"Is that mermaid liquor? What is it with you and mermaids?" Bianca asked.

"They are pretty," Chris shrugged.

"And their hearts are as cold as the ocean." Wyatt frowned.

"So they reject me normally, except they seem to like me." Chris shrugged.

"Because you are shiny, they are mindless attracted to things that shine." Bianca commented as she tried to collect some of the gleam from Chris' wet skin.

"It's a power spark, he gets them like hiccups sometimes when he over drinks and is uncontrollably upset." Wyatt sighed as an explanation to why his younger brother appeared to be glowing.

"You went all over the world?" He directed the question at Chris, placing his hands on either shoulder trying to focus Chris.

"Don't really want to talk about it. But yes from the sandstorm caves in Egypt to the depths of the oceans near where Phoebe's mermaid fan club headquarters is…." Chris explained.

"Looking for more pieces for the protection charms?" Wyatt asked confused.

"No. I'm not good enough to protect anything… why don't you just do it? You are the twice blessed…" Chris muttered.

"Maybe you should take him to a party, let him meet a new girl?" Bianca suggested trying not to chuckle at the strangeness of Chris as a bumbling diffident young man.

"I don't know if that's a good idea," Wyatt shook his head. "With the rising source, the full moon…"

"Enjoy the moments where you get to be a normal big brother, help Chris forget the girl that apparently broke his heart enough to turn him into this mess." Bianca whispered into Wyatt's ear, trying to fix the dismantling of Chris' confidence.

"All right, let's find you a party then Chris. But why don't we give the mermaids back their ancient delirious juice…" Wyatt carefully took the shell from Chris and slipped it back into the ocean. The brothers wandered down the beach a ways before orbing away from site, as Bianca watched them disappeared.

**October 24, 2023 **

The microwave was beeping, the phone was ringing, Dora was pounding her fist against the bathroom door and HJ was blasting some obnoxious song on repeat from his room. Henry was slipping his boots on as Paige walked back into their bedroom, with her hair in a towel and a steaming cup of coffee in her hand.

"Don't you just love mornings in a house of teenagers?" Paige laughed.

"Thanks for the coffee honey." Henry sighed jumping up and putting a shirt over his undershirt.

"Mum, you writing me a note to get out of my second period class?" HJ asked poking his head in and asking before stuffing a pop tart into his mouth.

"Can't he just drive your car Paige?" Henry frowned arguing his point again. Paige started blow dryer her hair and ignoring her husband. Henry shook his head and stepped out into the hall towards the kitchen following his son. HJ was pouring a bowl of cereal and toasting another pop tart.

"You are going to eat us out of house and home." Henry laughed as he poured a new cup of coffee.

"Never understood that expression." HJ mumbled through a mouth full of cereal and milk.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Henry smacked the younger man on the shoulder. Tricia walked into the kitchen, finishing up a braid and ignoring the screaming of Dora behind her.

"Morning," She smiled as she pulled a yogurt out of the refrigerator.

"Is Dora going to be ready to leave in five minutes?" HJ questioned. Tricia shrugged.

"Maybe if she hurries."

"Here is your note," Paige jogged into the kitchen with a note that she handed to her son.

"I don't think we should be rewarding him with skipping class for not getting his oil changed over the weekend, like a responsible person would have…" Henry frowned at his son.

"We had some stuff going down on the weekend dad, you know time travel, missing sister and all that…" HJ rolled his eyes.

"It's just his physical education class Henry, one little class." Paige tried to console her husband.

"I work with kids on parole, I don't like rewarding bad behavior Paige." Henry responded.

"I'm not a criminal dad," HJ dropped his empty bowl into the sink with a clank.

"Just a careless teenager. He's sorry he forgot to get the oil change, even though you told him several times last week. Extraneous circumstances." Paige nodded.

"There are always going to be extraneous circumstances for us." Tricia whispered.

"Which is why, you have to learn to balance things like this. What if you couldn't orb and needed the car and didn't have the oil so it didn't run?" Henry questioned.

"I'd call Chris or Wyatt…" HJ shrugged.

"That's not your father's point." Paige groaned as HJ was proving his immaturity to Henry with every word.

"We're going to be late to school." Tricia commented.

"We'll talk about responsibility later." Henry threw up his hands and walked out of the kitchen.

"I don't know what he gets so worked up about." HJ scrunched his nose at his mother.

"He's trying to teach you something." Paige sighed looking after her husband. HJ stared at his sister for an explanation but Tricia was staring out the kitchen window thinking. HJ glanced at the clock and started hollering to Dora.

"We're going to be late! Thanks mom," HJ kissed his mother on the cheek and hurried out to grab his backpack.

"Are you all right honey?" Paige asked Tricia.

"Yeah, fine. Bye mom," Tricia whispered walking out to the living room. Paige poured herself another cup of coffee.

"Let's have children he said, you'd be a great mom." Paige mimicked Henry as she shook her head. "Didn't say anything about having to deal with teenage hormones did he?"

The swarms of students traveled in clumps into one of the many high school hallways. Melinda was putting books into her locker and trying to ignore her badgering cousin Patience that was leaning against the lockers with her fancy book bag on the ground.

"How is he doing?" Patience asked trying to close the locker door that was hiding Melinda.

"I don't know." Melinda spat annoyed. She brushed her hair behind her ear and checked her make-up in the reflection of the mirror in her locker.

"How can you not know?" Patience pushed the locker door again and now her face peeked around to stare at Melinda. Patience was glaring at Melinda, with a flicker of red in her eyes but the emotion was controlled, tampered as it always was with Patience and Melinda.

"Hey Patience," A boy greeted Patience with a smile as he walked past. Patience smiled but didn't wave or respond any other way. Melinda rolled her eyes at the constant attention her cousin got. As another boy shouted a greeting from across the hall, Melinda slammed her locker shut and started walking down the hall.

"He won't answer when I call him, I just want to know he's ok." Patience explained jumping along to catch up with her.

"I thought Dervin was with you last night," Melinda snapped.

"Morning Melinda," An old teammate of Chris' winked at her as he walked by. Patience smiled at the boy and bit her lip to keep back a comment about how hypocritical Melinda actually was.

"I'm asking about your brother! You really think me that petty Melinda Halliwell, as to be asking about my boyfriend and not about my cousin. I heard he was taking the break up with Verity uncharacteristically hard…" Patience frowned.

"Uncharacteristically? Chris is dramatic about everything." Melinda shrugged.

"What kind of sister are you?" Patience snapped angrily.

"Look, I don't know how he is taking it. He doesn't talk to me like he talks to you. So sorry that he's not answering your calls. He didn't even come home last night, stayed with Wyatt down in San Diego. So I don't know how he's doing, for all I know my older brothers are hunting the source of all evil without me or you and are getting themselves killed." Melinda gritted her teeth and pushed Patience aside before ducking into a classroom.

"Displacing anger is a familial trait with us I think, or is it more a displace sense of helplessness or worry?" HJ commented behind Patience.

"Shut up." Patience rolled her eyes.

"No word on how our fearless teacher is doing?" HJ asked.

"I think he might be broken, I call almost feel his broken heart…" Patience said slowly, confused.

"Broken heart? I thought you said he didn't love her. If he didn't love her, why would his heart be broken?" HJ frowned.

"You know, while you're becoming an expert in the magical we should try to make sure you don't get emotional stunted…" Patience giggled softly winking at him. "On that note, skipping class for a romantic lunch date? Love it!"

"Stop that." HJ flicked her shoulder.

"Romance is like air to me, can't help but detect it." Patience smiled brightly as the warning bell went off and the two cousins jogged off into different directions.

A loud thud and the impact of his head against the hardwood floors made Chris groan as he opened his eyes to a blurred vision of colors. Everything hurt and Chris could feel bruises forming on his ribcage.

"I didn't think you had it in you to party like that," Bianca laughed from somewhere high above him.

"Thirsty…" Chris coughed as he struggled to sit up. Bianca knelt down and helped the young man sit up again the couch and handed him a glass of water. She sat next to him on the floor and waited until he was done drinking.

"Do you feel better?" She asked finally as Chris set the glass down.

"Where am I?" Chris asked hoarsely. Bianca and him were leaning against a brown couch that sat in the middle of a fashionable living room with white washed walls, hardwood flooring and a pastiche of antique furniture and items from Ikea. Along with floating bookshelves and a few framed photographs, Chris noticed a black and white sketch in an ominous black mat and frame.

"Its one of the few surviving original prints of a wood cut." Bianca explained noticing where his gaze sat.

"A woodcut of fire?" Chris squinted trying to focus on the image that seemed so far away.

"A witch burning actually, if you could actually see straight you might even notice the phoenix it. The print has belonged to my family for generations." Bianca shrugged. "A reminder of sort."

"That you came from the ashes…" Chris nodded.

"Our histories could be intertwined." Bianca winked.

"Except there are several families of phoenix witches, while there is only one Warren witch family." Chris muttered. The two young people were silent as they starred at the print in thought.

"So this is your place?" Chris coughed finally.

"Your brother had class, didn't want to leave you alone after all…" Bianca trailed off without finishing her thought.

"I shouldn't impose on you anymore," Chris nodded darkly and orbed before Bianca could stop him.

The traffic light flashed from red to green and HJ lurched forward in the beat up van his parents had helped him buy a few months ago. He drove past the regular mechanic shop that his father frequently took his cruiser too and his mother's car. Instead of heading to the appointment that his father had made for him, HJ drove on a few more blocks and stopped in front of a tiny bookstore tucked in-between an office and a coffee shop. Amelle was bent over a little novel with her red curls bouncing as she glanced up and smiled widely at HJ. She set the book down and jogged out with a woven messenger bag over her teal coat.

"I thought guardian angels would have cooler rides," Amelle commented as she pecked HJ on the cheek.

"This is a cool ride." HJ defended. Amelle giggled a bit as she flipped on the radio. HJ let the car inched forward trying to stay focus on the road and not on the way Amelle's cheeks were blushing.

"So did you just happen to have a free period today?" Amelle asked slyly.

"Aren't you skipping some photography class to get to lunch there too?" HJ winked back at her. The radio static became louder suddenly, as HJ turned down a city block. Amelle slammed against her seatbelt and struggled to turn it down just as the traffic light was flashing yellow. HJ started to hit the brake and a loud screeching sound shrieked from the car and the van didn't stop as the light turned red. The panic settled into HJ as the honking and screeching become one sound, his instinct to orb started to take over and his physical form began dissolving before he felt the tug of his charge. Amelle realized what was happening quickly reacting like a wild animal in the headlights before her powers stirred and shook the car, propelling it forward onto the side of the road half a block up as a response to survive. The van reached the other side of the intersection before any damage was done.

The two young people sat in silence for seconds before HJ's phone started to vibrate with a flood of text messages and then started to ring. HJ pried his white knuckles off the steering wheel and pulled out the tiny square phone with a shaking hand.

"You're not dead?" Tricia asked in a relieved whisper.

"No…" HJ replied slowly confused.

"I saw the van get hit by a car…" Tricia explained.

"Didn't happen."

"Well good then, I have to get back to an exam." Tricia hurried hung up on her brother. HJ hung up and started checking his message and noticed that Dora also sent him a message, asking if he was doing all right after his near car crash.

"That looks an awful lot like your dad down there," Amelle finally commented. HJ dropped his phone and his eyes snapped up to where Amelle was pointing. Henry Mitchell was running down the block chasing after a young man.

"Sorry, sorry about this… I just…" HJ waved Amelle out of the car with tilt of his chin. She was gone just as Henry was running up to the car, the older man ran past HJ without stopping and the young man thought he had not been noticed. His cell phone started ringing again from underneath his foot and HJ started breathing again as he stretched down to pick up.

"Call Dervin, he's going stir crazy anyway because aunt Piper won't let him out of the manor. He can fix the brakes this afternoon, but do try to put a spell on the car so you don't kill yourself on the way to the manor." Patience explained hurriedly.

"Patience? What are you talking about?" HJ stopped her.

"Penelope called, said you had a bit of trouble with your brakes. Said she was pretty sure you were all right… You are all right are you? Do you want me to get Chris… well, maybe Wyatt to come and help?" Patience asked.

"No," HJ replied immediately. "Do not tell Wyatt anything and Chris would have been here already if he was actively doing anything but wallowing…."

Before HJ finished explaining there was a tapping on his window. HJ turned while still on the phone to face his father's expectant stare.

"…I'll have to call you back Pat." HJ dropped his phone again and rolled down his window. Henry was holding up to the juvenile delinquent he had been chasing just moments before by tightening his arm behind the boy's back.

"You know taking my own son in for truancy isn't something I care to do…" Henry commented.

"The brakes were making a weird noise, I'm actually going to call a tow truck just in case something happens…" HJ spat out an explanation.

"This your kid, Mitchell? If you want to do some parenting we could go down to the station later…" The young man said.

"Shut up Jimmy." Henry snapped before turning his attention back to his son.

"I'm glad to hear your being responsible about it." Henry nodded.

"Trying." HJ nodded.

"Good then, call me if you need anything. Try to get back to school sometime today?" Henry nodded at his son before walking away with the struggling teenager at his side.

The afternoon sun was beating down on Dervin's neck as he was leaning over the engine of HJ's car. HJ was sitting on the ground rolling around on the plank Dervin had borrowed from Leo's tools to inspect the van earlier. Dervin was clad in one of Leo Wyatt's old plaid shirts and wiped his sweating brow with the sleeve. HJ was distracted starring up at the second story window that belonged to Chris' room, but the curtains were drawn.

"Is he here?" HJ asked suddenly.

"Who? Chris?" Dervin scoffed making a clanking noise.

"Yeah." HJ stared back over at Dervin who pulled out from the engine and turned around wiping the tool on his shirt. The tall red head leaned against the van and stared up at the window himself.

"Yeah, got here a few hours ago. He fell asleep, I'm sure he's sleeping off a massive hang over." Dervin smiled.

"From experience?" HJ asked curiously.

"Never been hung over?" Dervin frowned down at him.

"Maybe I have…" HJ stated defensively.

"Wouldn't recommend it for someone who doesn't even have enough sense to get their car checked regularly." Dervin sighed shaking his head and turning back to work.

"I do have sense!" HJ defended.

"Have you ever taken responsibility for anything Henry?" Dervin asked.

"Of course I have," HJ grumbled.

"From what I can tell you don't even take responsibility over your sisters, you let Chris and Wyatt deal with the responsibility of them and everyone else. You don't play team sports, so you aren't responsible to a team…" Dervin commented softly.

"I get good grades, I am responsible over…" HJ started.

"Over school. That's a given, you do that to stay out of trouble. You like rules Henry, but you don't seem to do well without structure and someone else taking the responsibility from you… notice that?" Dervin spoke without judgment and without looking up.

"What's it any of your business?" HJ snapped suddenly.

"You can't stay a kid forever HJ. You know how normal people die? Accidents, things that happen because someone else was too busy to be responsible over the simple things, like brakes." Dervin mentioned.

"I think you've heard too many lectures from my dad." HJ rolled his eyes.

"Your dad is a good man, made me a better man. Thought I should share the wealth." Dervin chuckled. The sound of music beating loudly from the familiar Halliwell jeep that Melinda was pulling into the manor's driveway. As Melinda slammed the door of the car, Dervin popped up to greet her.

"Chris know you're driving the car?" Dervin questioned.

"Your sisters went home with Patience, if I had known you were here I would have brought them here." Melinda stared at HJ, ignoring Dervin.

"Yeah well…" HJ shrugged shielding his eyes from the sun as he looked up at Melinda. Melinda had her arms crossed over an old baseball jersey she had stolen from Chris closet and a pair of jeans. She scrunched her nose as she finally looked over at Dervin.

"Plaid really works for you…" Melinda joked.

"Has your dad ever worn anything but plaid?" Dervin rolled his eyes. Dervin snapped the hood of the van shut and cleaned off his hands. Melinda stared up at her brother's window and sighed noticing the pulled curtains. Dervin watched the concern look on Melinda's face and nodded but as he opened his mouth as HJ kicked and sent his board and body tumbling into the side wall of the garage. Dervin and Melinda ran over to help HJ up from the ground, HJ's hazel eyes were rolling and his head jerked as if he was convulsing.

"HJ?" Dervin shook him. Melinda's grip slipped and Dervin had to yank HJ up before he hit the ground again.

"What was that?" Melinda pushed herself back up. HJ had passed out though and didn't respond.

"Wonderful," Dervin sighed. Dervin bent down and shoved his shoulder under HJ's stomach and lifted the young man with some effort. Melinda watched curiously as her least favorite cousin's boyfriend carried HJ into the manor.

"Maybe we should call your mom or one of your aunts." Dervin suggested as he dropped HJ onto one of the couches inside the manor.

"Chris is upstairs," Melinda shook her head.

"Chris isn't going to be much help right now." Dervin frowned.

"Of course he will…" Melinda ignored Dervin as she ran up the stairs to find her older brother. The old wooden floors of the manor creaked under Melinda's purple flats and the doorknob of Chris' room rattled as Melinda tried to shake it open.

"Chris," Melinda knocked loudly trying to get her brother to open the door. No sound came from the other side of the door and Melinda knocked louder against the door, before she knocked her knee up to the old doorknob and pushed the door open. The room was dark and had a foul smell of stale vomit and sweat, Melinda choked back at the smell stumbling back onto the desk. Chris leg was hanging off the edge of the bed and he was wrapped in his own sheet demonstrating how much he had struggled in his sleep. Melinda stared at him a moment before whispering his name. At his name, Chris wriggled and groaned as if imaginary monsters were attacking him in his sleep.

"Chris?" Melinda tried again but Chris started shaking more violently and knocked his head against the wall his mattress was up against. A swarm of orbs appeared in doorway and Wyatt stood with his arms crossed.

"He won't wake Melinda, you know that." Wyatt sighed.

"But…" Melinda stepped forward, avoiding the vomit on the ground and reaching out to shake Chris. Wyatt orbed into the room and caught her hand before it touched Chris shoulder.

"That is dangerous. He's fighting with nigt-mares again, he could attack you without knowing it." Wyatt held her hand tightly.

"Why can't we just wake him up?" Melinda whined.

"Nigt-mares don't release their victims until they are done tormenting them, don't you remember?" Wyatt asked.

"Hector mentioned something about it weeks ago but I, unlike you and Chris, have been using my dream catcher and drinking my tea." Melinda snapped.

"Well, Chris and I might actually be able to destroy these nigt-mares soon and not have to live cautiously waiting for them to attack us…" Wyatt snapped back and pushed Melinda out of Chris room.

"What is happening? Why were you tormenting Chris?" Wyatt asked crossing his arms.

"Chris is always around to help." Melinda muttered.

"Are you suggesting that I'm not? Just because Chris doesn't always call me, you know that I will come if you need any help…" Wyatt stated defensively.

"Patience told me I was a bad sister today," Melinda pouted defensively crossing her arms and lifting up her shoulders tensely. Wyatt playfully pushed Melinda before he wrapped his arm around the girl's shoulders and directed her back down the stairs.

"Because you don't worry about Chris? I worry about him enough for the both of us, it's ok if you're the young self centered one…" Wyatt winked at her. Melinda tried to pull out from underneath her brother but Wyatt just pulled her closer as they stepped into the foyer.

"Oh good you had the sense to call Wyatt," Dervin nodded turning down the volume on the television.

"The game on?" Wyatt looked at the screen to notice the Giants baseball game on. HJ was still out cold, stretched out on the long couch.

"Chris doesn't get so easily distracted." Melinda taunted.

"Right, nearest shiny object or pretty girl doesn't distract that knucklehead immediately." Wyatt sighed looking over at HJ.

"He passed out, after a…" Melinda started to explain.

"Power surge. He'll wake up tomorrow, sometimes with the over exertion it overtakes the body. It happens to kids at magic school all the time." Wyatt nodded throwing himself onto one of the smaller couches.

"That's it? Are you sure?" Melinda frowned.

"Unless you have something to add?" Wyatt stared carefully at Melinda waiting. Melinda shifted her weight uncomfortably under his gaze, she knew he had felt the surge of power. And years of experience also lead her to believe that Wyatt knew that the power had not only been HJ's but also her own, but she hated explaining to her older brothers that she didn't always understand her magic. She felt judged and inadequate comparatively when she couldn't explain what her magic had shown her, how her visions were less cohesive and clear to her than anything they had ever done. She shook her head and kept the fragmented reality of dark places, water and a pair of blue eyes with running mascara to herself.

"Right…" Wyatt sighed slowly making it clear that he knew his sister was hiding something from her but accepting the situation.

"Can't I try waking Chris or HJ up with a spell?" Melinda asked stubbornly turning around and slowly walking away.

"Try it and I'll personally bind your powers." Wyatt snapped his fingers at her and waving her back.

"You can't do that!" Melinda turned around and stuck out her tongue.

"Try me." Wyatt suggested.

"I wouldn't." Dervin winked at Melinda.

"No one was talking to you." Melinda snapped.

"Manners Mel, what has gotten into you? Chris suggested you've been being bratty lately, I didn't think it was anything too serious…" Wyatt clicked his tongue.

"You shouldn't treat her so much like a child, it makes it worse you know," Dervin commented eyes glued to the televised game.

"Dervin has been taking quite a few psychology classes. You'll have to excuse him." Patience flashed into the foyer with a bright light heart. She stepped into the living room letting the long and flowing fabric of her tunic dancing around her with the extra energy of her heart transportation. As she stepped into the living room, Melinda growled a bit and Wyatt snapped his fingers at her again as Patience danced up to Dervin.

"Where are your shoes?" Dervin questioned receiving Patience in his lap.

"I'm having trouble transporting them…" Patience shrugged nonchalantly.

"You've never had trouble before…" Wyatt frowned.

"Its still a new power." Patience shrugged again.

"Let's all talk about the half cupid." Melinda grumbled. Wyatt flashed his angry blue eyes up at his younger sister and his gaze softened as he saw her disappointment.

"You been watching games with dad, Mels? What you think about the batting average?" Wyatt tried to coax his little sister to him gently. Melinda moved past the sleeping HJ as he started to kick his shoes against the edge of the couch.

_The Golden Gate Bridge was engulfed in thick ominous fog and the night was the kind of darkness that only exists when even the moon is fearful of showing its face. HJ sat in the back of the beat up jeep, next to a year younger Patience in her pixie costume and glitter. _

_ "You shouldn't be wearing dad's old uniform, that is a classic antique and you are probably going to ruin it." Wyatt was complaining. _

_ "You're just upset that you didn't fit into it and I didn't want to be a stupid knight…" Chris snapped back focusing on the road ahead as the fog crept in hauntingly. _

_ "You would think they could get along on such a big Wiccan holiday." Patience sighed from the back seat. There was more bickering, HJ remembered there was more bickering but he couldn't recall what it was about or between whom anymore. The first blast came from the right, that much HJ remembered as his head smacked into the side of the car with such force that a hot, sticky amount of blood started to travel down the side of his head. Patience was screaming as Wyatt's powers shook the jeep more than just the jolt of hitting the side of the bridge. _

_ "Chris! Henry! Patience, get out of the damn jeep!" Wyatt was shouting over the chaos. He was the only one standing, the only one fighting, the only one with any sense of direction. HJ fought with his own desire to sleep, orbing out of the jeep and self-healing in the process. HJ realized that Patience and Chris remained in the jeep, unconscious from injuries too late. A flurry of fireballs hit the Jeep and sent it over the edge of the Golden Gate Bridge as if it was a toy. _

_ "CHRIS!" Wyatt's voice roared as he forgot his fight and sent his hands high above his end, focusing all his power on the Jeep. HJ's lack of action didn't matter as all the creatures on the Bridge were too distracted by the massive amount of power that Wyatt exerted to carry the Jeep and his brother and cousin back onto the main room. By the time that the Jeep hit the road again, Chris had shaken awake and had orbed himself and Patience out of the Jeep together. _

_ "Get her out of here," Chris pushed Patience into HJ's arms. There were cuts all over Chris face and one of his eyes was starting to swell but he still turned to help his brother in the fight. _

_ "NOW HENRY." Chris shouted over his shoulder as he sent a large brute demon flying into the supports of the bridge. HJ choked until he felt the hand of his mother behind him and felt her orbs swallow him and the limp Patience away. _

_ "Not even responsible then…" One of the fighting demons of the bridge mocked. HJ landed in the middle of a store aisle, a much younger version of himself. It was the afternoon that he had lost his younger sister Dora when he was suppose to be watching her. The clerk was calling out Pandora's name and Paige was frantically looking for Dora all over the store, while HJ just stood there looking confused. _

_ "Never been that responsible." Henry's own voice taunted him. _

_ Then he was back in his own van just hours before, the moment when the car lurched into the intersection but instead of Amelle saving them a little green Honda slammed into the side of the car… _

**October 25,****2023 **

Patience woke up hiccupping and Dervin Rogers fell onto her bed with a jump. Dervin wasn't wearing a shirt and was just in a pair of green boxer shorts, he struggled against Patience's comforter and fell off the bed with a thud.

"Patience, how did I get here?" Dervin groaned pulling himself up to his feet with the help of the bed. Patience yawned and stretched out her arms, blinking as she smiled taking in the way that Dervin's red hair smashed against his scalp.

"Morning dove," Patience crawled over her own mattress and pressed her lips onto Dervin's forehead.

"Patience, send me back to the manor." Dervin dropped his head against the bed but didn't pull himself back up.

"Don't really want to." Patience shook her head and with a scrunch of her nose, Dervin landed back on the bed next to her. Patience wrapped her right arm around Dervin's bare chest and rested her cheek on his shoulder.

"Patience, please. Either of your parents or your sisters…" Dervin begged though he found himself petting Patience's hair softly.

"Too late." Penelope giggled walking through the wall that separated Patience's room from her own.

"Penelope, how many times have I…" Patience didn't finish her statement before she lost the color to her cheeks and jumped out of bed and ran out of the room.

"Patience?" Dervin sat up and looked after her worried. Penelope studied him from her spot next to the bed. Her bright purple eyes starring at him so intently, Dervin turned to find that the young girl's eyes were the same color they were when she stared at family members.

"Am I family to you now?" Dervin asked curiously. Penelope started blinking rapidly trying to induce a change in her own eye color as Patience entered the room again wiping her mouth and cringing.

"Are you all right?" Dervin held out his hands to her.

"I want crepes. Want crepes?" Patience bounced on the bed.

"Um, I'm afraid to say yes." Dervin frowned.

"Pen, do something about his clothing?" Patience waved her hands as she ran into her closet. Pen rolled her eyes and stared at Dervin again.

"What does she mean do something about my clothing?" Dervin asked.

"I'll let you borrow my that yellow tank top and the wedges you've been wanting…" Patience commented from her closet. Penelope nodded and motioned rain with her hands and Dervin was showered with a magical rain. When the fall turned off, Penelope was no longer standing in front of him but Dervin was now starring at a mirror. Dervin's hair was combed back, slick and stylish while his face looked like it had been nicely scrubbed. He was now wearing a pull over black polo made of a lightweight and expensive material and a pair of gray shorts.

"That's a cool new trick." Dervin commented looking over to the closet where Penelope was trying to help Patience snap a pair of jeans closed. Dervin politely stopped starring as he got out of the bed and started quietly making the bed. He could hear the heavy footsteps of Coop somewhere in the loft and he knew it would be only moments before the fatherly cupid sense his presence. Before Coop could wake in though Patience screamed in aggravation and sent Dervin in a flash back to the manor.

An hour later, Dervin sat at the table with Melinda as Leo and Piper ran out the door. Chris had refused to stay in the kitchen for breakfast carrying a bowl of cereal up to his dark room and leaving his family behind.

"Make sure to get to school on time pumpkin," Piper kissed Melinda on the top of the head and patted Dervin on the shoulder. "Don't leave the manor, sir."

"Yes ma'am." Dervin nodded looking annoyed at the house arrest situation he was in for the third day in a row.

"Why don't you just dump her?" Melinda asked quietly as she got up and put her dishes in the sink. Melinda tugged on a belt buckle and Dervin smiled noticing the belt was one that he had given Chris the year before for Christmas. It was a rounded black buckle with an x, a retro styled x-men belt that was a joke between the two young men.

"I've tried, if you recall." Dervin chuckled looking up at Melinda's face. Melinda was letting her hair grow long again a direct attempt to distance her appearance from Patience's. Melinda nodded tugging at the strings of a zip up hoodie that was too big for her and Dervin recognized as Chris' as well.

"Why do you hate her so?" Dervin asked calmly studying Melinda's face.

"I don't." Melinda shook her head biting on her nails nervously. Before Dervin could ask another question though Dervin disappeared into a flash of red light again. Dervin appeared at a table tucked in the corner of a fancy looking café. Patience was sitting across from him, wearing a skirt and peasant top that looked like it came out of Penelope's closet.

"Darling, beaming me all over creation is hardly something you should be doing ever, not even counting in the whole someone tried killing me and there is a rising source…" Dervin leaned over the table and glared at his girlfriend. She smiled and ignored him as a waitress came over, Patience started ordering in French and suddenly Dervin looked around again. Starring out the little window he realized he wasn't in the United States anymore.

"You beam us to Paris, that's some powerful magic there Pat." Dervin sighed.

"Oui," Patience smiled brightly at him. "I wanted crepes."

"This is dangerous Patience, I know you wanted crepes. But some control darling." Dervin begged throwing his hands over the table and clasping them around Patience's hands. At Dervin's touch Patience jumped back as if she had been shocked with electricity.

"I can't stand the sight of you." Patience gritted her teeth, confused by her own revulsion of Dervin. She gagged a bit and ran off towards the back of the café, covering her mouth and preparing to puke again. Dervin leaned back and groaned starring at the ceiling of the café and sinking down into his chair. The waitress came back with the food before Patience returned looking paler and sicker than before but beaming with love that Dervin could feel.

"What is going on with you?" Dervin sighed shoving a fork of crepe into his mouth. Patience sat next to him grabbing her plate from across the table.

"I'm experiencing very sudden mood changes today. It's rather confusing…" Patience whispered letting her words calm as she picked at her crepe.

"French crepes then? Your father and aunt Piper are going to be very upset." Dervin sighed.

"Are you really so keen on staying on house arrest?" Patience questioned.

"No." Dervin shook his head. "I hate it. Your aunt Piper could have been a warden at a jail…"

"She's not that bad, stop being mean." Patience whacked Dervin playfully. The two started joking around with each other and calmly enjoying a late breakfast halfway across the world from where they thought all their problems laid.

Chris didn't notice the manor was empty before he orbed away, he didn't sense the boy that his family was protecting had long since disappeared. He orbed into his brother's dorm and when he didn't find Wyatt in his room, Chris orbed into Bianca's living room.

"Am I going to have to put a visitor's charm on my apartment?" Bianca questioned.

"I was looking for Wy." Chris shrugged looking around.

"He does go to class, unlike you. Is it true you dropped out of school?" Bianca questioned him. She was sitting at the little table, looking over some books with her laptop open.

"I am taking a break, I plan to head out to Boston in January." Chris shrugged and looked around more like a lost child than a confident young man. Bianca watched him and frowned.

"That was an easily given answer. You still look terrible, what were your dreams about last night?" She asked.

"Nothing." Chris snapped. Bianca smiled at least Chris was still being secretive about some parts of his life.

"Want me to call Wyatt?" Bianca asked kindly.

"I don't want to bother him. Want to start a not so happy hour with me while I wait for Wyatt?" Chris asked.

"How about we do something else to help you take your mind off of whatever you don't want to talk about?" Bianca sighed.

"Like what?" Chris asked carefully not looking at Bianca. Bianca tapped on her table with her long fingernails and suddenly snapped a sword into her hand.

"Want to sword fight?" She asked smiling.

"Like you train Wyatt?" Chris asked carefully. Bianca nodded smiling widely, no matter how heart broken Chris appeared to be there was still instincts he could not ignore.

As the clock struck noon, Dervin was flashed back into the manor alone after Patience had an angry fit.

"This isn't fun anymore Patience!" Dervin shouted at the ceiling of the room. He pressed his fingertips into his temples and closed his eyes tight, sending thoughts to Patience before he started searching Piper's kitchen for headache drugs. Piper stepped into her kitchen carrying a paper bag of food.

"Are you all right Dervin?" Piper asked carefully throwing her keys into a dish and setting the food down.

"I have a headache Mrs. Halliwell." Dervin commented popping an aspirin.

"You can call me Piper, you know." Piper laughed. Dervin nodded and watched as the oldest Charmed one masterfully wandered around her kitchen sliding things into cupboards and pulling out other items to start cooking.

"What you making?" Dervin asked leaning over the counter.

"Macaroni and Cheese. When Chris was seven, he wanted to eat only macaroni and cheese. Of course, Leo and I couldn't let him do that but he still ate it every three days for almost a year." Piper laughed as she started to grate cheese.

"Trying to coax him out of his room?" Dervin nodded the question.

"Mothers are obvious people," Piper laughed. Dervin quietly watched Piper make dinner for her sad son like watching an old family friendly movie, it was like something that Dervin use to dream about long before now. There was silence for a while as Piper started chopping vegetables and Dervin felt sudden tugs around his shoulders.

"Not now," Dervin gritted his teeth.

"What is that?" Piper asked looking up with her graying bangs falling into her dark eyes.

"Piper, can you tell me about this source that everyone is so worried about?" Dervin asked concentrating on Piper's facial expression.

"The source of all evil is exactly what it sounds like." Piper shrugged. Dervin studied how her shoulders tensed up in a way that reminded him of Chris.

"But didn't you vanquish him?" Dervin questioned.

"Three times. The thing is that as long as there is evil, there is a source. The rising new source, will be the three sources that we've fought before… it's a growing and developing evil that collects all its past selves." Piper explained.

"So, it will already know about you and your sisters and the kids?" Dervin asked.

"The source knows about the kids because it will take Nemod, who knows about the kids but the source only knew about Wyatt…" Piper commented.

"Doesn't that make this source, unstoppable?" Dervin asked.

"Nothing is unstoppable, Dervin. I am worried about the blood collection and the idea of this source rising on a powerful magical day." Piper chattered worriedly.

"Is there nothing we can do?" Dervin asked. Piper looked up surprised.

"I don't know how this family does it, but we find good people that want to protect us. It's noble, but be careful though we have lost many friends who tried to run in and be the hero." Piper warned.

"Halliwells can't always be the heroes, Piper." Dervin sighed as he disappeared in a flash of red light again.

The grandfather clock at the Mitchell apartment struck one in the afternoon when HJ tumbled out of bed finally. He woke up coughing and confused, Paige ran into his room at the sound of him hitting the ground.

"It is about time you wake up," Paige sighed. "Wyatt and Chris never had this happen to them, I was starting to get worried but Leo assured me it was normal. Like a growing pain, combined with the nigt-mare problem we've been having…"

"Mom, could you stop for a moment." HJ held up his hand and held his head with the other. A dull sensation of ringing consumed HJ for a few moments before a deep breathe seemed to wash it away.

"Want some lunch?" Paige questioned. "You've been asleep for a long time."

"Are you going to make it?" HJ choked. The young man smiled up as his mother as he lifted his body from the ground covered in clothing. Paige bent down and picked up a shirt and smacked HJ playfully.

"I am going to stick a frozen pizza in the oven. Just because I am unable to cook like Piper…" Paige complained as she walked out of the room. "Take a shower, would you! You smell like a dying rat…"

"Thanks mom!" HJ laughed as he pulled out his phone. He dialed a number quickly and pressed the phone to his ear but after minutes of no one answering he wandered into the bathroom down the hall.

As the oven started beeping, HJ walked into the kitchen with a towel around his neck. Paige was sitting at the table, starring over some papers from magic school.

"Grading papers?" HJ asked as he pulled out a soda. Paige nodded mumbling something about the dynamics of molecular combustion powers.

"Be helpful and get that pizza out of the oven." Paige mumbled without looking up. HJ nodded and clanked around pulling out plates. Paige ignored her son until the boy was sitting in front of her with a large plate of pizza. He was stuffing his mouth with a large piece of pizza when Paige looked up finally. Paige frowned at her son's lack of manners but didn't say anything, focusing her gaze on him as she slowly started chewing. HJ's right knee was bouncing up and down nervously and Paige stared at it with a smile.

"You know, you've done that since you were a toddler." Paige commented.

"Done what ma?" HJ asked as he washed down what Paige imagined might be an entire piece of pizza down with a soda.

"What are you feeling guilty about?" Paige asked softly.

"I've tried to call Amelle three times now, she sends me to voice mail." HJ commented letting his face set into a quizzical frown.

"Did you do something to make her mad?" Paige asked trying to control a smile.

"I well, I, let's just say I did something childish…" HJ struggled to explain and avoid eye contact with his mother. Paige nodding as she murmured an agreement waiting for more of an explanation.

"Ma, do you think I'm irresponsible?" HJ asked suddenly. His eyes burned with the question, storming with the insecurity that had plagued his sleep. Paige's eyebrows arched inward as she popped her lips.

"Responsibility is a relative thing bud, you should enjoy not having to be responsible." Paige explained slowly. The front door of the apartment slammed as Henry arrived shouting out to his family. HJ automatically leaned back into his chair and Paige noticed how quickly her son tensed up at the arrival of his father. Paige let out a sad sigh aggravated by how lately HJ and Henry had been butting heads more and more.

"Afternoon beautiful," Henry winked at his wife as he walked into the kitchen. "How you feeling sport?"

"Fine Pop," HJ grumbled.

"You'll make sure to get all your homework for the day?" Henry questioned as he picked up a slice of pizza.

"Yes sir," HJ nodded. Paige glared up at her husband. Paige was not pleased with how hard Henry was being on her oldest son, but her husband assured it that it was important for the young Henry Jr. to learn to become a mature responsible man. Henry was concerned that his son too often depended on his parents and his older cousins, taking the back seat and still acting like a child.

"You want to tell me why you were sitting on the corner of 8th and Harrison Street yesterday?" Henry asked as he settled into a chair. HJ's right leg started trembling again and Paige flicked a finger at her husband underneath the table, trying got get him to leave their son alone.

"I just was getting a snack before I went to sit in the shop…" HJ mumbled.

"Didn't Dervin Rogers end up fixing the car?" Henry questioned.

"I thought it might be cheaper to just have Dervin do it, Patience suggested it. He was going stir crazy…" HJ nodded.

"Dervin does know how to repair cars, isn't that the first job you got him?" Paige tried to distract her husband.

"A job, maybe you should think about getting a job Henry. I got my first job at fifteen…" Henry commented nonchalantly shrugging at his wife.

"Yeah but HJ doesn't need a to get a job." Paige shook her head.

"Maybe it's something we should talk about, it might do him some good." Henry suggested. The front door slammed again as Dora and Tricia could be heard bickering about the most recent gossip to shake their group of friends. As Dora entered the room dramatically, HJ took his chance and ducked out of the kitchen and back down the hall to his room. HJ locked his door and settled in to wallow in his own thoughts and try to call Amelle every half hour.

Dervin was ducking underneath the couch of Phoebe and Coop's loft as Patience was screaming at him.

"Patience, stop it!" Dervin was commanding from his hiding place. Patience shrieked and slammed her door leaving Dervin standing in her living room alone. Phoebe was at Magic School for a Halloween committee meeting and Coop was at Primrose's ballet lesson, so only Patience and Penelope were home with Dervin.

"What the hell has gotten into you?" Dervin shouted at the closed door. He ran both his hands over his short red hair in frustration. Penelope was sitting on a high stool at the counter in the kitchen, starring at him intently.

"Patience!" Dervin shouted at the closed door again before letting out a frustrated sigh.

"Headache?" Penelope squeaked.

"Has your sister lost her mind?" Dervin shouted more at the closed door than at the younger sister. Dervin trudged over to the counter still wearing the clothing that Penelope had beamed on him hours earlier, though he was visibly disheveled by the amount of magical traveling he had been forced into that day. Penelope stared at the closed door, her eyes furiously blinking trying to control her coloring before Dervin reached her. The young man plopped onto the stool next to Penelope and picked at the food in front of him.

"You are angry." Penelope cringed as Dervin flicked the glass in front of him. Taking deep breaths to settle his own annoyance, Dervin turned leaning on his own hand and forced a smile for Penelope.

"What's with the new look Pen?" He used his free hand to tug on Pen's bouncing curl near her ear.

"Trying it out." Pen shrugged.

"You're wearing too much make up," Dervin wrinkled his nose as he inspected Penelope's face with his green eyes.

"That's your opinion." Penelope snapped.

"You're a pretty girl, why are you trying to look like your sister?" Dervin sighed.

"You think my sister is pretty." Pen sighed, smacking Dervin's hand away from her curl. The blush on her cheeks mixed with the red of her blushing.

"I think Patience Calliope Halliwell is beautiful," He said it loudly and towards the closed door. "But anyone who might think that about you would look beyond the wild cherry lip gloss."

Penelope self-consciously pressed her lips together and looked away from Dervin. Patience flashed herself onto the empty stool next to Dervin and quickly without warning threw her arms around Dervin's neck. Dervin turned to her to give her a piece of his mind but she immediately pressed her lips onto his lips. When she pulled away, Dervin didn't pause.

"What has gotten into you?" He demanded annoyed. Patience frowned and disappeared again. Dervin slammed his hands onto the counter and gritted his teeth.

"She's hormonal." Pen whispered. Dervin's head popped up.

"But she's never this out of control…"

"Well…that's because…it could be…" Pen ran her tongue along her lips and looked down. Dervin stared at her and at the door.

"What's the secret little one?" Dervin whispered.

"She doesn't know. That's the only reason she hasn't told you." Pen whispered. The door to Patience's room flew open.

"Mom and dad are here…" Patience stared right at Dervin.

"I am so tired of being beamed all over creation…" Dervin sighed as he dissolved into a heart glow. Patience smiled brightly and skipped over to sit next to her sister.

"How are you feeling?" Penelope asked softly.

"I love Dervin but today there were moments, when I couldn't stand him. I'm so confused." Patience started crying immediately. She rested her head on Pen's shoulder and the younger sister soothingly rubbed her sister's back.

"Want a hot chocolate?" Pen asked cheerily. Patience nodded and the tears stopped as soon as Pen conjured a steaming cup of hot chocolate in Patience's favorite retro latte mug.

"You are the best sister ever," Patience giggled as she started to sip on the hot chocolate. Penelope gave her a sad smile for a nanosecond before laughing.

* * *

_Author's Note: This chapter is particularly long and at this point I do anticipate the next two to be slightly long as well.. though I haven't finished figuring out how I am going to work the next one. Would love to hear what you're thinking as I'm coming to the wrap of this story. Thanks to everyone who has been reviewing! _


	18. Shame in Your Defeat

**Shame in Your Defeat **

_The Cave, Mumford and Sons_

**October 26, 2023 **

It was just before three in the morning and the manor was quiet and almost peaceful. Everyone was asleep except one troubled young man. Chris was sitting on the floor with his head leaning back on the bed and a bottle of cheap whiskey in one hand and a mug of coffee in the other. He sat in complete darkness and stared at the ceiling of his room, fighting sleep and thought with all his stubborn might. Melinda Halliwell was asleep on Chris' bed, covered partially by a blanket with a dream catcher tied to her wrist. Chris took a swig of whiskey and let his finger sparked enough to heat the coffee in his other hand. A billow of smoke grew from the coffee cup, swarmed taller than Chris' sitting torso but Chris didn't even give the smoke a second glance as it materialized into Javin.

Javin was wearing his regular black slacks, a white collared shirt and red tie that glittered when he pulled the curtains open just enough to let moonlight flood onto Chris. Chris expertly ignored the demon that appeared in his room and Javin allowed it as he stared lovingly at the sleeping Melinda. Javin let his hand float over Melinda's cheek as he smiled down at her and magically pulled the cover up to her chin. Soundlessly Javin settled down on the ground next to Chris.

"You look like a prep school model." Chris scoffed without looking over.

"And you look like a drunkard in an alleyway and smell like one too." Javin coughed. The two friends were quiet as Javin loosen the knot of his tie.

"What are you doing here Javin?" Chris asked bitterly.

"Why haven't you made more friends?" Javin stole the bottle out of Chris hand and took a drink before making the liquor disappear.

"I've got friends." Chris shrugged.

"Not many you trust much. But me, I'm a demon and you trust me loads…" Javin stated as he kicked off his shoes.

"You also created an entire history of our relationship that didn't actually exist." Chris yawned.

"Like remember that time that we tied all your blankets together and climbed out your window?" Javin laughed at the fabricated memory that felt so real. The reality of the memories of Javin and Chris' friendship were obsolete to their relationship, the boys accepted their fabricated friendship as real enough to be kindred spirits. Javin understood Chris outside his family, outside what was expected of him. Javin connected to the darkness of Chris that always just teetered on the side of goodness.

"I broke my arm that night." Chris nodded recalling. Javin shoved Chris now and his face set in a serious glare.

"No more wallowing Halliwell. We have work to do."

"I am not wallowing." Chris snapped.

"Have you forgotten the task at hand, you do not have all the elements for your protection tokens. I have found the last one you need." Javin explained. Chris sat up straight and put down his coffee, purpose filling his green eyes again.

"You found a golden apple?" Chris squinted carefully at Javin.

"Yes, but it's going to be difficult and we need to get one by yesterday to make these tokens by All Hallows Eve." Javin pointed out the window. "You've wasted three days."

"If I had known where to find one…" Chris mumbled.

"Yes, drinking yourself into a stupor that's definitely the way to figure out where to find a golden apple." Javin wagged his finger at Chris playfully.

"Where is it?" Chris asked excitedly slapping away Javin's hand.

"I need you to get some sleep, be refreshed for just a few hours before we start on this quest." Javin explained pulling out a tiny crystal bottle from his pant pocket.

"What is that?" Chris asked.

"A sleeping tonic to keep the nigt-mares away. Can't alert the other side can we?" Javin winked.

"But I don't need to sleep…" Chris started to argue.

"Anka and Kron are checking in on our beds tonight in exactly ten minutes, I have to sleep. You know getting grounded as a demon of youth and rebellion, not as easy as being mortally grounded…" Javin winked.

"You sleep, I sleep?" Chris smiled.

"Believe me, I'm doing you a favor." Javin stood up and looked over at Melinda again. Snapping his fingers, Melinda was consumed in a black cloud and she disappeared.

"I could have moved her…" Chris grumbled.

"Drink that tonic." Javin pointed.

"Don't trust…" Chris opened the little bottle and Javin waved his hand up and the liquid fell into Chris' mouth. Javin winked.

"Into bed, sleeping beauty. See you in the morning." Javin disappeared into a cloud of black smoke as Chris' eyelids finally closed.

Piper quickly walked into her youngest daughter's room and pulled the blinds up and clapped her hands.

"You are going to be late to school princess, out of bed please." Piper stated loudly before she walked back out of the room. Melinda groggily rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and reached out to the side of the bed, expecting to find Chris.

"Chris?" Melinda yawned. It took her a few more eye rubs and stretching to realize that she wasn't in her brother's room anymore but in her own. She struggled to untie the dream catcher on her wrist, a token Wyatt had forcefully put on her the evening before as he left the manor. Once the dream catcher fell to the ground, Melinda trudged into her bathroom to get ready for the day.

As she finished putting on mascara, Melinda slipped on the green hoodie that was hanging off her doorknob and jogged down the back stairs into the kitchen. Leo was reading his morning paper, in his school robes with Dervin sitting next to him starring down at the entertainment section of Leo's paper. Piper was dotting over Chris, picking up a pancake and setting it on his plate. Meanwhile, Chris looked up and half smiled and half frowned at Melinda.

"Why are you wearing my sweatshirt?" Chris demanded. Leo set down his paper and glanced at his son before smiling up at his daughter.

"I believe what your brother means is good morning," Leo sighed.

"Have some pancakes sweetheart." Piper plopped a few pancakes onto an empty plate and set the food down at the extra chair of the table. Melinda tugged uncomfortably at the string in the hood of Chris' green hoodie as she sat down.

"You're having breakfast with us today?" Melinda whispered as she picked at the pancake with her fingertips.

"Use your fork please Melinda," Piper sighed sipping at her coffee.

"Mom made banana nut pancakes for the fourth day in a row, I couldn't resist any longer." Chris winked at Melinda as he stuffed his mouth again.

"Besides, he must be starving after three days of pity partying and all…" Dervin nodded.

"You know, house guests are usually suppose to be polite…" Chris laughed. Melinda frowned confused by her brother's jovial good nature after days of his dark and disconnected attitude. Leo finally put his paper down and looked critically over at Chris.

"What are you going to do today?" Leo asked calmly.

"I am going in to P3, Derek called yesterday says he needs some help cleaning out the old glassware. Mom ordered new stuff…" Chris explained.

"Derek has been calling you since Monday," Piper frowned.

"I'm not sure you should be working at P3 anymore, at least not until you turn 21…" Leo stated slowly. Chris frowned he drank from his coffee.

"You never drank before you turned 21, dad?" Chris taunted.

"I just don't like the way you've been handing yourself lately Christopher, I think maybe we shouldn't encourage you to play with fire…" Leo stared at Piper for support.

"He works at Magic School too, he's just as reckless with magic and we let him work there…" Piper pointed out. It was a regular argument between Piper and Leo. Magical versus normal lives for their children and Chris had always been the child that had managed to tight rope on a line of both normal and magical reckless disregard that bothered both parents equally.

"You don't really let me do anything," Chris pointed out weary of the fight brewing.

"Actually, your dad is the headmaster at Magic School so he does let you work there… and your mom is the owner of P3, so she lets you work there too… Though I should point out that the amount of times you've gotten into the liq…" Dervin stopped as Chris kicked him from underneath the table.

"I don't drink when I'm working, I don't miss my shifts for anything aside from a magical attack and even then I make up the time I missed. Generally I'm recognized as a responsible man outside of these four walls. On that note," Chris pecked his mother on the cheek in gratitude for the pancakes and stood up.

"Time to head out, hurry up Melinda. I'll drop you off." Chris winked at his sister.

"Can't you just orb into the club?" Melinda asked. Piper frowned at her youngest.

"No, he can't." Piper sighed.

"I wanted to drive the car to school." Melinda pouted.

"Three days wasn't enough for you for me to be out of commission? Let's go little sister, I've got places to be." Chris tugged back on his own oversized hood and ran up the stairs.

"He's surprisingly cheerful." Leo commented starring after him.

"I wouldn't worry too much about the drinking or the magic, Mr. Wyatt." Dervin commented.

"Why is that?" Leo asked the young man seriously.

"He'll grow out of them. Besides when Chris has got a goal to focus on, there is nothing that can bring him off his tracks." Dervin laughed.

"Really Phoebe must just love you…" Piper laughed and shook her head. Melinda finished her breakfast just as Chris was jogging back down the stairs. She ignored his clapping hands as she walked back up to her room to get ready. It wasn't until he was outside honking obnoxiously that she started running and hurriedly kissed her parents good-bye.

Chris had pulled the car to the front of the house, ready and running to hit the room even before Melinda closed her passenger door.

"Why couldn't you let me have the car?" Melinda whined.

"Soon enough you will have the car to yourself, stop whining about it. You'll get a ride home from Pat or HJ?" Chris asked.

"I don't think HJ went to school today." Melinda shrugged defensively.

"So you'd rather walk than get into a car with Patience?" Chris glanced over at her critically.

"No." Melinda pouted. Chris chuckled softly as he stopped at a red traffic light.  
"Melinda's stubborn resistance is so much sweeter in taste than yours Chris." Javin flashed into the backseat.

"Javin!" Melinda jumped excitedly and stretched out her hand to clasp Javin's caramel colored fingers. An angry flash of green eyes glared at Javin in the rear view mirror but Chris pressed his lips together and remained silent. Javin winked at Melinda but pried his fingers away from hers and scooted closer to the driver's side of the car.

"Feeling better there, friend?" Javin flashed a charming smile at Chris.

"Javin, why are you here?" Chris rolled his eyes.

"We have a golden apple to discuss." Javin shrugged crossing his arms and leaning back against the seat.

"What?" Melinda squeaked starring at Javin for the answer knowing that Chris would ignore her.

"You really had to smoke in here to talk while Melinda was in the car?" Chris sighed.

"It's is important for her, as well as in the long run for you, if you stop treating her like the little sister that was afraid of the dark." Javin shrugged.

"I wasn't afraid of the dark." Melinda snapped.

"Yeah, that night light was totally decoration in your room until you turned 10." Chris muttered. Melinda hit Chris in the shoulder as he pulled up in front of the school.

"Chris, please?" Melinda begged suddenly. Chris hit his head against the headrest of his seat and hissed a curse word at Javin.

"You're going to be late for school." Chris finally sighed. Melinda shook her head and crossed her arms.

"No. Let me help? Please?" Melinda tugged on Chris shirt. Chris shook his head though.

"I have to go to work, you have class. Go on with you." Chris tilted his head and the passenger door flew open. Chris magically pushed Melinda out of the car, even though she struggled against him every inch out of the car until she fell onto the concrete sidewalk outside. In a flash of speed, the young woman had jumped back into the car and was sitting with her seatbelt on.

"Melinda!" Chris shouted at her in frustration. "What the hell was that?"

"Hasn't little sister told you about her newest power? She can't really control it, but I sense it has something to do with indignant rage." Javin explained from his spot in the backseat.

"Melinda, go to school." Chris tried pushing her out again but now Melinda fought his movement with her own motion back into the car.

"Stop it." Melinda whined as she clutched her hands around the shift of the car. Chris flicked his fingers and shut the door of the car.

"Melinda, I am serious get out of the car so that I can go to work." Chris glared at her. Melinda shook her head though and Chris shook his head and closed his eyes, with a deep breath Melinda was swallowed in an orb lights and disappeared.

"That was the best way to deal with that?" Javin asked as he slipped into the front seat. Chris started the car again and moved out of the parking lot.

"You did that on purpose." Chris snapped.

"We really do have things to take care of, how was I suppose to know that Melinda was having attachment issues?" Javin rolled his eyes.

"Attachment issues?" Chris' eyebrows jumped up in surprised.

"She's wearing your sweatshirt and your belt and in her backpack she has Wyatt's favorite sunglasses and his music player." Javin nodded.

"Wyatt is going to kill her when he finds out those sunglasses are with her. He just bought a new pair." Chris laughed. The cheering and then announcing of a baseball game sounded loudly from Chris' phone and with expert movements the young man sent the call to voicemail.

"Wyatt then?" Javin smiled.

"That's him and dad's ring tone. Either one, don't want to talk to them right now." Chris nodded.

"You shouldn't avoid me little brother." Wyatt growled appearing in the backseat.

"You all have started using your magic a little more blatantly, you've noticed that right?" Javin questioned the brothers.

"Javin, always a displeasure to see you with my reckless brother." Wyatt smacked Javin on the shoulder before placing a hand on Chris shoulder.

"Driving Wyatt." Chris warned as he felt the anger vibrate off his brother.

"Melinda called me. She's quite worked up." Wyatt sighed.

"I told you she was being unreasonably bratty lately." Chris stated through gritted teeth. He was really going to need to sit down with Melinda soon.

"You seem better, did you sleep last night?" Wyatt asked suddenly taking in the clean and rested appearance of his younger brother.

"Yeah, you're welcome." Javin clicked his tongue.

"What is going on Chris?" Wyatt growled.

"Javin just found something for the protection charms." Chris replied.

"Are you two talking telepathically?" Javin asked suddenly drawing the brothers out of their conversation.

"What?" Wyatt and Chris asked together.

"You weren't talking out loud right then…" Javin pointed to one of his temples and smiled knowingly.

"We can't do that." Chris shook his head.

"What did you find for the protection charms?" Wyatt asked slowly. Chris slammed on his brakes at a stop sign, with more force than normal.

"I didn't say anything about that…" Chris stuttered.

"Telepathy is harder to control than actual speaking." Javin nodded. "So you must have been thinking about it while you two were having a conversation."

Chris locked his jaw in annoyance. _Just what I need Wyatt having access to my thoughts. _Wyatt frowned at Chris and the younger brother knew he had been heard.

"I have to go to work, can we please talk about this later?" Chris begged as he parked the old jeep behind P3.

"Fine. Meet me at noon, we'll have lunch and you boys will tell me what was found." Wyatt pointed at his watch and disappeared.

"I will get young Henry and Patience, we are going to need them." Javin nodded and smoked out.

"Great, glad we can all agree and not just order Chris around like he doesn't have a choice…" Chris muttered to himself.

Hours later, as the midday sun hung high above George Washington High School Melinda walked with purpose towards a metal picnic table. The sun glinted off the fancy black designer sunglasses that Wyatt had been missing since the first week of October. HJ and Patience sat at the picnic table alone, waiting as they whispered to each other and took in the unusual warmth of the day. Melinda's heart rate increased when Javin appeared enough that she basically transported her body into his side, with the increased speed of her walking.

"Melinda." Javin had caught her before she crashed into the ground. He spun her around in his arms, feeling her rage as her feet started kicking the youth demon did the only thing that came to his impulsive mind. Patience started whistling and HJ coughed uncomfortably as Javin released Melinda and stopped his kiss only to peck her on the nose before letting her go.

"Take me too." Melinda commanded Javin.

"We need someone to take the twins home." HJ pointed out before the tension could grow into more uncontrolled power.

"You can orb me back if the meeting isn't over yet." Melinda shrugged clutching to Javin so he couldn't disappear without her.

"Your brothers wouldn't be pleased." Patience sighed.

"It is not up to them." Melinda snapped.

"We're going to be late then." Patience nodded at HJ as she held out her hand to him. Javin chuckled as he wrapped his arm around Melinda's waist and the two puffed into a cloud of black smoke. The four young people appeared not in Wyatt's dorm room but in the spacious apartment of Bianca De La Guarda. Wyatt sat directly in the center of the dining room table, with Chris and Bianca at either side of him. The three young adults sat arguing about something and fell silent when the rest of their party arrived.

"What is Melinda doing here, Javin?" Wyatt demanded angry.

"Why don't you ask Melinda instead of the demon?" Bianca asked softly, placing her hand on Wyatt's bicep.

"Delightful Bianca." Javin winked.

"Melinda?" Chris prompted.

"I told you, I want to know what is going on. You two can't keep shutting me out of everything just because I'm your little sister…." Melinda complained taking a sit directly across from Wyatt.

"Baby sister." Wyatt corrected. Chris was hanging his head in the palms of his hands and starring at the table. Patience floated over to sit in the empty chair next to Chris and Melinda, while HJ sat next to Bianca and Melinda. Javin decided to kick himself up onto the couch, leaning on the back of Melinda's chair carefully.

"I am not a baby." Melinda squeaked so loudly it was almost a scream.

"In reality, we should start really thinking about training Melinda as well." Patience tapped her fingers against the table and snapped her fingers suddenly conjuring a glass of water. Patience started gulping down the water as her cheeks flushed a deep red. Melinda stared at her in surprise.

"Especially since Chris is leaving next semester." Bianca nodded from across the table.

"What?" The table of young people roared, Patience choked on her water enough for Chris to need to hit her on the back a few times to get her to cough it up.

"Thanks B." Chris glared at the woman across from him.

"He's gotten into Boston, he's going to school with…" Javin started explaining.

"Dervin. That's why you've been spending so much time together!" Patience's eyes flashed a glowing red. Chris hit his head against the table, not even bothering with his hands anymore.

"I was going to tell everyone soon. I got a scholarship to play ball and well you and HJ have been doing well… I didn't except the source problem." Chris was explaining quietly into the table.

_Why didn't you tell me? _Wyatt's hurt voice sounded in Chris head.

_Wanted to be sure that it was what I wanted to do. _Chris responded without thinking.

_You will go to school, we'll figure out the Source problem. _Wyatt seemed confident.

_ I have been going to school… _Chris managed to lie for only four seconds in his mind before he admitted that he had dropped out of the courses he had started back in August.

"They are discussing it telepathically, you see." Javin was explaining to the table of confused young people.

"Another power? They have another power? Because they don't have enough!" Melinda crossed her arms and pouted.

"Don't you now move at the speed of light?" Patience smiled slightly.

"All right, not that I want to dissolve such a lovely power source as yourselves. Christopher over there has been wallowing for three days. Three days wasted." Javin sighed placing his hands on Melinda's shoulders. All five eyes around the table starred at him questioning.

"Are you suggesting Chris is the only useful one?" Melinda twitched trying to get his hands off her. Javin instead pressed his thumbs into her shoulder blades and kept talking.

"No, not at all. But on occasion, he is the most useful and as this is his project…" Javin shrugged.

"Where is the golden apple, Jav?" Chris snapped his fingers trying to get Javin to focus.

"I would like to point out I think you're losing your touch there C," Javin winked. Wyatt's knee started to tap the underside of the table loudly and Javin knew that patience was running thin. "We must go on a quest to Avalon to retrieve the apple."

No one even blinked as the air lost all sense of jovial impatience that might have been stirring around seconds before.

"The Avalon like the club in downtown?" Melinda fidgeted around to look at Javin, to see if the fixed expressions of the people around the table were due to something he had done to see face.

"This is why you don't get to help, you haven't even bothered to study anything magical." HJ sighed heavily. Melinda's eyes sent daggers at her only male cousin.

"The Island of Avalon is the mythical place where the sword of Excalibur was forged." Bianca explained carefully lacing her fingers into Wyatt's hand as she smiled at Melinda.

"Oh." Melinda whispered.

"How…"

"What…"

"Where…"

The questions started shooting out of everyone like a match had been thrown on a haystack. But Javin simply raised his hand and pressed it to his lips, a shushing motion that powerfully reduced the noise of the little apartment.

"Let me explain before the questions begin, I can guide you to Avalon. It's a journey that won't take more than a few hours for a bunch of magical creatures such as us. Retrieving the one apple might but tricky, but I suspect we won't have much trouble at it. It's an easy enough quest, we leave and come back all before night fall on the 27th and then there is still enough time for the last leg of Chris' little project." Javin nodded.

"What is the catch then Javin?" Wyatt asked suspiciously starring at Javin's hands that were still massaging Melinda's shoulders.

"Only three Halliwells may go." Javin stated.

"Chris and I will go." Wyatt stated firmly.

"And me." Melinda added.

"No." A strong unified voice of Wyatt, Chris and Javin bounced off of Bianca's white walls.

"Why not?" Melinda slapped her right hand onto Javin's wrist.

"Chris must go." Javin sighed.

"Right, which is why I am going." Wyatt nodded.

"You can't." Bianca whispered.

"What?" Wyatt turned to stare at his girlfriend.

"You can't go to Avalon." Bianca shook her head and shot a glance to Javin for support.

"Look mate, Avalon is either a wicked powerful place for you or a wicked destructive place. The point is that many legends say that Avalon is the last resting place of Arthur; it's the resting place of his entire kingdom. It's far too dangerous for you to go…" Javin explained.

"Then why can't I go?" Melinda begged Wyatt from across the table. Wyatt was shaking his head though, not satisfied with myth interfering with his plans.

"Chris must go because he knows what the apple is for and it will be safer and more powerful to have Patience and HJ go with him. A coined recreation of the power of three, one from each sister," Javin explained.

"But Chris and I are two thirds the power of three." Melinda argued.

"Without Wyatt you can not recreate anything powerful enough to be safe in such a magically volatile place." HJ nodded understanding dawning on him finally.

"You don't know how to control your power well enough, Mel." Patience smiled sadly.

"And you? You do?" Melinda snapped scathingly.

"Melinda," Wyatt snapped his fingers. But Patience winked at her older cousin.

"I let my emotions control my powers, I recognize it. But I can control them when I must, I understand my powers." Patience shrugged.

"What is this stupid golden apple even for?" Melinda asked Chris blatantly ignoring Patience.

"When do we have to hit the road to this magical place?" Chris pretended Melinda wasn't speaking to him.

"I still think I am going with you." Wyatt slammed his fist into the table.

"I'll go." Bianca patted Wyatt on the shoulder.

"What?" Wyatt frowned. Patience stole a glance to HJ from across the table, sharing in some personal secret that no one else bothered to notice.

"I'll go, help protect them. Javin is right, you can not go." Bianca kissed Wyatt on the cheek.

"That settles it, a quest of five." Javin clapped his hands. He dropped his head and whispered into Melinda's ear.

"Forgive me darling." And with the apology Melinda was transported back to one of the many ancient forgotten girls' bathrooms at George Washington High School. She let out a high pitch scream that was masked by the period bell ringing. A small vibration in the pocket of her hoodie made Melinda snap back into composure only normal to a Halliwell. She calmly pulled out her phone and stared at the text message.

_Prove me wrong. Don't tell mom. Put my jacket back. _She angrily pushed the phone back into the pocket, glanced at her face in the mirror once before walking out into a crowded hallway to get lost in the shuffle.

It was nearing twilight and Melinda sat alone, on a tattered swing in the garden of the manor starring into the distance. She had not seen either of her brothers since it had been decided she wouldn't go to Avalon. Since getting back to the manor the young witch had tried every thing she knew to transport herself to her brothers, but Melinda had never bothered to be as involved in learning her craft enough to know anything past what she had to. Her own powers could transport her and she didn't understand how to find a spell in the Book of Shadows without magical assistance and so the youngest child of Piper and Leo had given up quite easily.

Wyatt appeared behind her and naturally started to push the teenage girl on the swing. Melinda let Wyatt pushed her for a few swings, slowly but surely letting her legs start doing the pumping work they had learned years ago. Before too long Melinda was pushing herself and Wyatt had stepped aside and just leaned, not too relaxed but visibly protective against one of the wooden posts that had ancient herbs wrapped around it. The two siblings were quiet, until Melinda pressed her heels into the stones and dirt beneath her and stopped the swing completely. The ropes twirled around her, wrapping her shoulders tightly together first and then unraveling even quicker. She was tumbling out of the swing before she even took a second breath but Wyatt caught his sister before the gravel could do any harm.

"Careful." Wyatt sighed, helping her up to her feet. Melinda pushed the tall blonde away from her forcefully, harsher than she really intended and glared at him.

"Are they gone then?" She demanded.

"Maybe soon," Wyatt stared up at the reddening sky with his hands deep in his jeans pocket and his arms straight.

"Is that why you're here babysitting the silly little girl on a swing?" Melinda snapped. Wyatt's eyes wandered down from the sky and they looked sad, unquestionably tormented by things that Melinda didn't even try to understand.

"Chris told me you had my sunglasses." Wyatt winked away his sadness and plastered a familiar smirk onto his features. He held out his hand expectantly, but he didn't have to wait for Melinda to agree or even for her to get them. The twice-blessed witch merely thought about them long enough and the designer sunglasses appeared in his outstretched hand.

"Show off." Melinda muttered trying to snatch back the prize unsuccessfully as Wyatt tucked the glassed into his shirt collar.

"What is it that you want Melinda?" Wyatt asked seriously. Melinda frowned and crossed her arms defensively.

"Why? Are you going to buy me a pair of sunglasses?" She snapped. Wyatt shook his head; both his siblings used sarcasm as their natural defense.

"You know," Wyatt started pacing around the garden knowing that Melinda, much like Chris would follow him when he walked too far.

"This tree," He pointed. "Chris fell out of it once, he was about four I think…"

"Chris fell out of this tree more than once Wyatt." Melinda sighed noticing her brother was in a peculiar mood and starting a lecture that resembled their father's.

"Yeah but the first time. He was four, I think. I was maybe six already and I told him to climb it. Never thought the punk would really climb it, but I told him if he could climb it that he could hang out with me and my friends." Wyatt explained starring up into the tree.

"You didn't know Chris very well if you didn't think he would climb the tree. He probably fell out of it on purpose to get you in trouble." Melinda scoffed. Wyatt chuckled and nodded.

"Probably, he's always been a punk."

"Why are you here?" Melinda asked.

"Are you looking for attention Mel? I know Chris has been distant and well you and I stopped getting along…"

"…When you broke my favorite doll because I lost your cat." Melinda nodded.

"Right, but are you looking for attention or is it something else?"

"What?"

"You went down into the underworld and almost got yourself killed a few weeks ago." Wyatt fidgeted into his pockets and glanced at his cell phone screen.

"You and Chris were in trouble." Melinda shrugged.

"Your interest in magic is superficial most of the time and you're a sixteen year old high school girl…"

"Which means what exactly?" Melinda interrupted.

"It means we didn't think you really wanted to learn yet, that you were content living the life of a sixteen year old high school girl. With those wild parents are out of town parties and friends." Wyatt shrugged. Melinda smiled at the lack of the word boys in that description, Wyatt and Leo were much more resistant to the idea that Melinda might be hanging out with boys.

"What are you getting at Wyatt?"

"I mean if you want to actually start getting into magic, well then I respect that. I don't like it, mind you, because you're still so young and you could still enjoy normalcy…"

"Weren't you off fighting demons at 16?" Melinda laughed at the double standard that she so often pointed out to her brothers.

"I was fighting demons from the womb little sister, as Chris likes to constantly point out." Wyatt shrugged.

"But if you're serious you have to be serious Melinda, this isn't a game. This isn't like the latest hair clip trend." Wyatt stopped pacing at the swing and stared expectantly at Melinda.

"I didn't collect that many hair clips!" Melinda shoved her older brother.

"You had tons of those things, you even stole one from my eighth grade girlfriend, Abby?" Wyatt pulled at a lose strand of Melinda's black hair.

"I'm as much charmed as you are right?" Melinda questioned.

"That's what they tell us," Wyatt nodded looking over to catch his mother starring at him from her kitchen window.

"And there is a source coming?" Melinda question.

"Big bad right around the corner." Wyatt nodded again.

"So it's about time I leave behind my lip smackers and hair clips?" Melinda winked at him.

"But you know you'll always be our little sister? What changes now, is you have to listen to Chris and I more than you've ever done…" Wyatt warned.

"Only until I get the hang of it, I'm a fast learner." Melinda shrugged.

"We will see." Wyatt whispered as the back door of the manor opened.

"What are you two doing out here?" Piper's voice floated over, worried, anxious and ever suspicious.

**October 26, 2023 **

Pandora Mitchell was walking out of her gym class muttering about the uselessness of playing sports in school. A flustered looking student council type was running towards her.

"Dora, have you seen Tricia? She said she was going to do all the proofing for the Halloween dance fliers and we can't seem to find her…" The young freshmen girl spewed out words quicker than Dora could even think.

"No, I haven't seen her." Dora shook her head trying to get past the girl.

"Well do you know what class she got out of?" The girl persisted.

"No, because well we are actually not the same person." Dora grumbled meanly and ducked under the on coming crowd of football players out of sight. Melinda was standing in front of her locker, throwing items in with enough force that half of them ended up on the ground.

"That notebook piss you off in some way?" Dora questioned as she bent down and picked it up.

"Shut up Pandora." Melinda snapped.

"Pandora, huh? Chris in trouble with Wyatt again?" Dora smirked placing the notebook carefully in the open locker.

"Stop being ridiculous." Melinda pulled out a history book before slamming the locker shut.

"Does it have anything to do with HJ not coming home last night? Dad almost lost it, if Wyatt hadn't called assuring that it was completely necessary…" Dora explained chattering away as she followed her cousin through the crowded hallway. The two cousins had their last period of the day together, sophomore U.S. history.

"Completely necessary for them not to take me, again. Stupid brothers," Melinda muttered murderously.

"Wyatt didn't go either though?" Dora consoled.

"I don't want to talk about this." Melinda shrugged into her seat near the back window. Dora nodded and settled next to her.

"I want to have a party," Dora suggested instead.

"I'm still grounded from the last party that we had." Melinda rolled her eyes.

"No one even remembers I threw that party, everyone calls it Melinda Halliwell's party…" Dora mimicked the voices.

"Pandora, would you like to explain how President Calvin Coolidge came to the office of presidency?" Mrs. Davis demanded as the bell finished ringing and Dora was still talking.

"Did he walk there?" Dora popped her lips and scratched her ear nervously. The class laughed at her response.

"Incorrect Miss Mitchell, care to try again?" Mrs. Davis tapped the chalk against the blackboard behind her and scratched the year 1923 onto the board.

"Didn't he just get voted into office, just like the rest of them?" Dora sighed resigned to being put on the spot by her least favorite teacher.

"Incorrect again, anyone else?" Mrs. Davis looked around the room and Melinda's hand shot up.

"Miss Halliwell?"

"He took office after President Warren Harding suddenly died." Melinda stated confidently.

"Show off." Dora mumbled before settling into her desk to take a nap.

"Maybe if you stayed awake during history…" Melinda trailed off as Mrs. Davis started lecturing on the importance of the Coolidge presidency.

_The bleachers were crowded as various sports team practiced on the green fields below. Dora sat in the middle of a semi-circle of girls and there was a soundtrack of chattering about school events that sounded familiar yet distant. A runner from the field stopped in front of the bleachers, cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted up to Dora and her friends. _

_ "Where's HJ?" He asked. Dora rolled her eyes and shrugged without bothering to shout back a response. The track runner frowned but turned on his heel and started running again. Something pricked Dora's neck and the feisty twin snapped her torso around to give whoever had dared to throw anything at her. _

_ "What's your…" Dora started. _

_ "I'm looking for HJ…" A pretty little red head with curls asked politely. Before Dora could answer she was in a crowded hallway of the high school and Bobby Jensen accidentally slammed into her. _

_ "Oh Dora, have you seen Tricia?" Bobby asked. _

_ "Do I look like I have seen Tricia?" Dora snapped annoyed already by this path of dreaming. Bobby shrugged and muttered some apology before he disappeared in the people. Someone else ran into Dora immediately. _

_ "Hey Mitchell twin where is your other half?" Someone shouted from the right side of the hallway. _

_ "Seriously!" Dora turned and set a dream person on fire. The hallway went up in flames immediately and Dora fell into an alley, a familiar alley. Pandora was against the brick wall as she watched her twin sister wield an immense amount of power to fight against what appeared to be a werewolf. Dora watched confused and awed by Tricia, until the dream pulled her into a forest. A forest where Tricia stood with Bobby, kissing until a fire spread through a tree behind them. _

_ "When did Patricia become so powerful?" Dora questioned carefully. _

_ "Maybe she was always the more powerful twin." Bobby stared at Dora as he suggested a fact that was lingering somewhere in the usually confident twin. _

_ "Power fluctuates between us, it's what it does. We are connected." Dora tried to explain. _

_ "Or maybe she's going to take all the power and stop needing you." Bobby suggested still holding Tricia in his arms. Someone tugged on the bottom right edge of Dora's shirt and Dora turned around to see the little curly red head from the bleachers standing behind her. _

_ "What?" Dora demanded as she turned to stare at the girl. _

_ "Have you seen Jay?" The girl demanded again, looking annoying but with a fleeting look of fright. _

_ "No. I told you that before, though why are you in my dream?" Dora looked over her shoulder but her sister and Bobby were gone. _

_ "I need HJ, please." The girl begged. But the scene dissolved into fire again… _

Pandora was on the ground of the classroom and everything was unnaturally still. Dora's eyes blinked several times adjusting to the color of the fluorescent lights. It took her seconds to hear the hissing coming from her side, and then to make out the words.

"This is why my brothers don't think I can help. Stupid involuntary uses of our powers, oh yeah there he is clockwork." Melinda was muttering mutinously.

"Melinda?" Dora coughed sitting up.

Melinda was sitting at her desk still, flickering her hands up every few seconds to the room full of half escaping students. Dora could hear the oldest Halliwells voice clearly angry on the phone.

"I understand Wyatt, no it wasn't planned. I know!" Melinda was practically shouting. Dora rubbed her head and pulled her body up into the desk she knew she had fallen out of just minutes ago. She stared around the room at the stillness of her classmates, like perfect statues. The rustling of the students outside the classroom was getting louder, shouting and colliding.

"Melinda," Dora flapped her hand into Melinda's shoulder.

"Wyatt, Wyatt. FINE! I understand." Melinda snapped the phone shut and flicked her hands quicker than Dora could notice and the movement resumed.

"So what happened?" Dora asked as she collected her bag. Melinda was trying to control her breathing though and was deliberately walking slowly. It wasn't until the two cousins walked well out into the parking lot that Melinda opened her mouth or stopped focusing on her physical movements. Dora had been patient enough, ignoring the signaling from two track players that were looking for her brother by pretending to be texting someone.

"You almost set your desk on fire, I had to freeze the room. Right when I froze everyone you twitched and put out your own fire then fell out of your chair." Melinda explained.

"And you're robot imitation back there was some kind of attempt to control your powers after Wyatt yelled at you?" Pandora smiled.

"Shut up." Melinda smacked her backpack into Dora's side. The two girls reached the beat up green jeep and both jumped in.

"Where's Tricia?" Melinda asked as she pushed the keys into the ignition.

"And you, Melinda?" Dora rolled her eyes and tilted her head back and up against the seat.

"Having some twin issues over there, twin 2?" Melinda mocked. Dora sucked her lips into her mouth in annoyance as her shoulders tensed up to her ears. When the cousins had been younger and the twins had appeared interchangeable, Melinda and Patience had teased them by calling them twin 1 and twin 2. It was not something that either Pandora or Patricia appreciated and it was the only thing that Patience and Melinda had agreed upon in the last ten years.

"Big brother going to set up the finger paints for you to have something to do this afternoon?" Dora spat back.

"Seriously, where is Patricia?" Melinda asked with an edge to her voice as she ignored Dora's commentary on her relationship with her brothers.

"I don't know! Why does everyone seem to think that I am responsible for my siblings today." Dora screeched.

"How many times have you been asked today?" Melinda asked sympathetically. It was something Melinda could relate to being asked consistently about her brothers was a daily problem for little sister of Wyatt and Chris. Teachers, old friends, abandoned girlfriends, neighbors often times it seemed as if everyone in the small 8 block radius of San Francisco city center had known Wyatt and Chris or Piper and Leo.

"…Even in my dreams, there was this persistent little red head that kept asking for HJ. Oh but Tricia has a student council meeting today, that's right Bobby will drive her home. " Dora was explaining.

"You were saying you wanted to have a party?" Melinda tried distracting her cousin as she started the car up.

"Everyone should have a sweet sixteen, and well Chris said there was nothing we could do about the rising source anyway. Why not enjoy the last normal night we're going to have?" Dora asked shrugging.

"You know you turn 16 on the same day as Patricia right? Also it's Halloween and Halloween is never normal for us…" Melinda started to refuse.

"So you don't have a present for me yet?" Dora laughed.

"You are truly a self centered individual," Melinda shook her head.

"Takes one to know one." Dora shrugged again turning on the radio and focusing on starring out her window as she started rattling off who should be invited to the party she knew would never happen. Melinda indulged her cousin for the entire ride to the Mitchell family apartment almost convincing herself that a party was realistically feasible in their lives. As the jeep pulled up to the curb and Dora jumped out of the car, she turned with a mischievous smile on her face.

"So you'll help me do this?" Dora smiled eagerly.

"You were being serious?" Melinda choked on her own surprise.

"Of course I was, a few spells here and there… maybe some potions… I would even reduce to begging if it was needed." Dora winked. Dora's phone began to ring and instead of waiting for a negative answer, the feisty twin slammed the door shut and answered the phone.

"No! I don't know where he is, I am not his damn keeper." Dora shouted loudly enough for Melinda to gather that yet another person had called asking about HJ. Melinda stepped on the accelerator and cranked up her music as she sped away towards the manor.

Pandora walked into an empty home with a sigh of relief, it was rare that Dora or her siblings were ever really alone. With 6 overly involved cousins, and several over protective uncles and aunts aside from two siblings and Henry and Paige themselves, Pandora could remember less than five afternoons she had any time alone. She flung her stuff down near the front door and immediately turned on music loud enough to carry throughout the many rooms of the apartment and danced into the kitchen. A large pink post it note indicated that though alone, Dora was hardly forgotten.

_Dad will bring something for dinner. Call me as soon as your sister and brother get home. –Mom _

Dora scrunched her nose up, even her mother expected her to know where her siblings were at every moment of every day. As her fingernails pulled the sticky part of the note off the refrigerator surface, Dora stumbled back into the counter.

_HJ was running, faster than Patience through a thick fog. The familiar sounds of bells, fairy's bells were jingling around them but underneath that pleasantly familiar sound was the heavy footsteps of whatever was following very closely behind Patience. HJ had beads of sweat falling down his face as he burst through the greenest tree branches Pandora could ever imagine. Patience wasn't far behind, panting loudly and struggling to tear off an entire sleeve from her shirt. But as HJ burst into the clearing, for a half a second Dora caught sight of Chris practically leaning into Bianca against a tree trunk. But only a millisecond did what looked like an embrace last as Chris shoved himself away from Bianca, quickly and nervously but his hand still found its way into her finger tips as he helped her pull away from the tree that sparked into a fire from his own powerful force. A golden apple fell from the sky and a puff of black smoke materialized into Javin catching the apple before it landed on the ground. _

The vision stopped then as Dora's phone rang once again. Frowning she answered the call without starring at the id screen.

"You again? No I still don't know where he is." Dora hung up again without any explanation and flicked the bundled up post it into the trash. Dora set her phone to silent and left it on the counter of the kitchen as she danced into the bathroom and pulled out one of the many hidden boxes of hair dyes she keep in a box under the fancy bathtub.

The grandfather clock was striking five as Patricia slammed shut the front door of the apartment and immediately turned down the music. Dora was stepping out of the bathroom with her newly platinum blonde hair and Tricia stepped into the hallway in time to see her twin collapse.

Lights dimmed and everything muffled into a stillness that resembled pressing pause on a movie took over the vintage clothing store that Melinda and Dervin shopping in. Dervin was holding up a ridiculous looking brown shirt with a talking cartoon bird and a cereal box and Melinda was in mid-eye roll. Klea and Quell appeared on either side of Dervin with their hands clutched around his elbows for easy movement.

"Stupid baiting for attention if you ask me," Quell muttered staring at the young charmed one in front of him.

"No one did." Klea snapped at him.

"Why don't we just kill the girl here?" Quell wondered hungrily as he licked his lips.

"Don't be stupid, you would dead before any harm would come to her. As soon as you start to attack her, her powers would react and her brothers would be here in moments." Klea explained bored of the explanation. As the only surviving member of the Brotherhood of the Thorn, Klea had learned first hand that not even frozen or asleep were charmed powers to be underestimated.

"Vlad! Get on with it already, I hate working with the Triad's powers." Klea snapped impatiently. Though Nemod had insisted that the Brotherhood and Triad would usher in the new century with a shared common interest in the increasing power of the underworld, Klea held on to her old school beliefs. The brotherhood was created to serve the source, to counter the very power of the Triad. She understood that currently, Nemod was in a position of power over the Triad because the ancient power was still vastly weakened by its last encounter with the Charmed Ones but that weakness would not last.

A man with black sunglasses and a walking stick appeared next to Dervin and smiled wickedly at Klea. Vlad was the latest recruit of the brotherhood, an older demon comparative to Nemod and Quell. Vlad had been around for almost two centuries but spent the greater part of the 20th century hiding in the Apple, mourning the lost of his sight. But Klea had sought out one of the oldest shape shifters left in the western hemisphere remembering he had once been a good friend of the dead Vornac, the previous second-in-command of the brotherhood.

"The little Oracle has seen this work out, calm down Klea." Vlad clicked his tongue as he placed his hand on Dervin's shoulder and instantly transformed into a carbon copy of young man next to him.

"Eyes are such marvelous treasures. So under appreciated by these children…" Vlad blinked a few times and looked around him in the store.

"Five minutes, tell her you have to go check something and then you disappear." Klea reminded the older demon.

"In my day we would just outright attack, none of these underhanded schemes of attempting normalcy…" Vlad made Dervin's face frown.

"In your day, we didn't go twenty years without a source running the chaotic undergrounds. This is a fragile uprising on all fronts Vlad, we can not afford the charmed children ruining our chances." Klea sighed.

"Then why not just pick any old innocent for the sacrifice? Why must we bait the children at all?" Vlad stared over curiously to Melinda, still frozen a few feet in front of him.

"Nemod is about symbolic and literal power from our enemies. I think it's foolish but that little Oracle of his says it does indeed work out to be more power." Klea shrugged and with a snap of her fingers the lights brightened, the sound increased and the actual Dervin Rogers evaporated into the floor with her and Quell.

Patricia had her sister's head in her lap and was softly slapping her hand against the pale cheek of Dora's face. The ringing of the grandfather clock had silence minutes before and only the drowned out music came from the bathroom. Dora's eyes rolled open suddenly and she bolted into a sitting position.

"Crap, oh crap. This well… that is…" Dora was choking on her very words.

"What is it?" Tricia asked.

"I just… I can't…" Dora shook her head still dazed. Tricia placed her hands on either shoulder of her sister and took a deep breath letting her natural powers take over. As she saw the vision of what had just transgress, her instinct carried her and her twin away in a light of orbs to the vintage t-shirt store where Melinda shop completely unaware. The twins had appeared undetected and carefully behind a fixture, Tricia pulled Dora out into the plain view of anyone in the store.

"Melinda," Tricia whispered. Melinda turned around confused by the voice she recognized.

"Tricia how did we…" Dora started confused.

"We need to leave. We need to leave now, it could still be dangerous here." Tricia glanced nervously around the shop.

"What are you talking about? Why are you both here?" Melinda asked confused.

"We have to go…" Tricia insisted again.

"I'm waiting for Dervin to come back, he went to try something on…" Melinda frowned.

"No. He's no longer here." Tricia state plainly.

"What the hell?" Melinda snapped.

"We have to leave, I am not positive my powers are developed enough to actually sense danger." Tricia whispered.

"I didn't think you're powers were developed enough to tap into mine either…" Dora whispered surprised.

"But is it true about Dervin, maybe I should just check?" Melinda tried stepping away towards the back of the store but Tricia shot her arm out and grabbed her cousin's arm. Melinda believed Tricia; she knew the words were true once they were spoken. Dervin had acted strangely before disappearing into the back. And even though Melinda hadn't spent tons of time with Dervin Rogers over the years, she knew he knew enough about her family and her brothers to never leave her alone during a time of heighten alert. The only reason that Dervin had come out shopping with Melinda was because he casually invited himself on her excursion so she wouldn't be alone.

"Dora saw it. He's gone and Amelle is gone. I saw we're not going to find them." Tricia explained calmly. "We have to go."

Melinda nodded frowning, confused by the power that was rolling off of Patricia and the calm that eerily controlled her. Dora's eyes were wide and she just stare at Tricia, not saying anything and easily following in step with her twin as the three girls started towards the parking lot. Melinda felt a wave of jealously hit her and she was unsure if it came from her cousin or if it was her emotion. But jealous was soon overrun by an immense feeling of guilt and panic as she slipped the key into the ignition.

"Where is Dervin?" Melinda swallowed afraid of the answer.

"My guess, somewhere cloaked in the underworld. We aren't going to find him, not until Nemod wants us to…" Tricia shook her head.

"Demons took him. Demons took the red-headed girl too, Amelle?" Dora asked her sister confused.

"Yes, our brother's charge." Tricia nodded.

"How did I lose Dervin without noticing?" Melinda demanded pressing her energy into the gas pedal as the jeep started speeding along.

"It might have happened to anyone." Tricia forced her voice to sound sympathetic. Melinda squinted trying to concentrate on keeping her eyes on the road instead of glancing over to the judgmental expression of her cousin.

"You're sure we can't find him?" Melinda questioned again, her voice tone rising to panic.

"I don't foresee it happening, no." Tricia shook her head.

"Since when can you see something like that?" Dora spat angrily.

"I don't know." Tricia shrugged. "I've been very in tune to my own magic lately, I let my instincts take over…"

Patricia wavered in her calm demeanor for a second as she realized her own power and the strangeness of the situation. Dora was glaring at her sister, trying to understand what was happening as well as trying to figure out if it had only been the last vision Tricia had replayed and not all of Dora's visions from the afternoon. The three girls had arrived at the manor and panic had settled into Melinda.

"I have to find Dervin, I can't believe I let you talk me into just leaving that vintage store…" Melinda shouted as she ran into the manor. As Dora jumped out of the jeep she held out her hand to grab her twin before they walked into the manor.

"Patricia?" Dora questioned.

"I was scared." Tricia whispered turning around. "When you were on the ground, I was scared enough that my powers just kicked in."

"Do you think it's my fault that Amelle…" Dora choked out her question.

"I don't know why she was calling you…" Tricia frowned.

"Would you have listened to her?" Dora asked hurriedly in whispers as the sisters walked into the foyer.

"I don't know." Tricia shrugged. The twins jogged up the attic where Melinda was muttering to herself and trying to figure out how to find the lost Dervin.

"We should call aunt Piper," Dora commented immediately.

"Let me think for a second." Melinda begged.

"Maybe Wyatt?" Tricia suggested.

"No. We are not calling Wyatt. Absolutely not." Melinda shook her head vigorously.

"Dervin and Amelle were taken by demons on command of Nemod, this isn't a game Melinda." Dora chewed on her bottom lip as she walked to the Book of Shadows. The Book was magically flipping through pages.

"Why does everyone keep suggesting that I think this is all a game!" Melinda shouted letting her anger spur her into a quicker than blinking pacing around the attic.

"Do you even know what to do?" Tricia asked.

"No, no I don't know what to do. Do you know what to?" Melinda asked stopping in front of the podium where the book sat just as the pages settled.

"Blood Sacrifices." Pandora read aloud. As Melinda stared over the podium and read the entry on blood sacrifices, distracted long enough for Tricia to pull out her phone and call Piper Halliwell.

"Aunty, Amelle Hopi and Dervin Rogers have been taken into the underworld by demons. I think I can ID them from the vision that Dora had…" Tricia explained quickly into the phone. Dora and Melinda had snapped their attention to the mild mannered twin in seconds when they heard the word Aunty. Piper gave some instructions and Tricia just nodded hanging up the phone.

"You called my mother?" Melinda gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"This isn't like the time you lost Patience's hamster Melinda, this is a live human being that was taken. Two innocents our family was protecting are gone and no offense, but we don't know how to find them." Tricia snapped.

"She's gotten a backbone since that whole time travel incident." Dora whistled.

"We have to ID the demons from the visions." Tricia nodded at her sister. In a few steps Tricia was standing over the book, a position she had never been in before with her sister. Pandora tucked her hand under all the pages on one side and flipped the book open to the beginning.

"What do I do?" Melinda questioned anxiously. Before Patricia could give her any suggestions though a series of orbs appeared right behind her.

"Melinda!" Wyatt sounded disappointed and aggravated. His hand was on her shoulder as he spun her around to stare at him.

"Wyatt, I can explain…" Melinda started.

"We do not have time for this right now, right now we need to try scrying. I'm going to walk you through this once, so pay attention." Wyatt steered his sister over to the table with the map of the city practically pasted onto the wood. By the time the three Charmed Sisters appeared at the manor, only twenty minutes later, the twins had properly identified only one of the demons they had seen. The entry on Klea, a member of the Brotherhood of the Thorn, was outdated and scant in information. Wyatt and Melinda had been unsuccessful in the scrying but Wyatt hadn't suspected anything would be found through the scrying. The oldest charmed child had appeared on command from his mother, knowing that his sister and cousins could be in danger. He had taken to teaching Melinda something to contain his anger towards her immaturity being the reason for their present predicament.

Piper, Phoebe and Paige took over the search from the children. Piper asking Wyatt to drive the twins home and Paige directing him to make sure the crystals were properly around the apartment. Melinda was sent to her room, to do homework as Wyatt denied her a spot in the car.

"Are you mad at Melinda?" Tricia asked softly as Wyatt pulled the jeep out of the driveway. Wyatt huffed loudly before answering.

"Not anymore than usual." He cracked a strained smile.

"It wasn't her fault." Dora piped up. Both twins were sitting in the back of the car, wanting to give Wyatt space as they sensed his brimming mood.

"Wasn't it?" Wyatt's blue eye shimmered in the rearview mirror for a moment, starring at Pandora. He wasn't threatening her. He was genuinely wondering how it wasn't his sister's fault.

"It's not like she let the demons just take Dervin because she was being spiteful. She didn't know. They froze everything, shut it down almost…" Pandora tried to explain what she had seen in her vision.

"They replaced Dervin with a shape shifting decoy to distract her long enough that he could disappear without her noticing…" Tricia finished explaining.

"Melinda shouldn't have been anywhere outside the Manor, even less with Dervin Rogers. Her need to shop outweighed the need to protect an innocent?" Wyatt asked without looking at the backseat.

"She was buying our birthday gifts. I made her feel bad, and you had already yelled at her today…" Dora whispered the last part. Wyatt's eyes wandered up again to stare at Pandora and Patricia.

"What are you feeling guilty about there Dora?" Wyatt asked. The car was completely silent for almost an entire city block before Dora tucked her newly blonde hair behind her ear and leaned forward to set her chin against the driver's seat.

"Amelle called me several times this afternoon, looking for HJ. I didn't know she was actually in trouble…" Dora tried to justify.

"Did you ask her?" Wyatt asked softly. He wasn't angry with Pandora; it was strange how lenient he was with his younger cousins compared to his siblings. He expected a degree of magical maturity and empathy from HJ and Patience, because they had been training. But the rest of them, he was much more understanding.

"No, but I didn't even really know who she was. Or how she had gotten my number…" Dora muttered into the back of the chair.

"Did she say she was in trouble?" Wyatt prompted more answers.

"No. She would just ask for HJ." Dora shook her head. Wyatt nodded as he pulled in front of the apartment.

"Did you know it was Henry's charge?" Wyatt asked finally.

"Sort of." Pandora shrugged.

"Not everything can be about just you anymore Dora, sorry kid. Time to grow up a bit." Wyatt winked as he pulled the girl's head in and kissed her on the forehead.

"Is it going to be ok?" Dora asked quietly.

"I don't know. But go on, get out of the car and check the crystals. Call me once you make sure they are set properly." Wyatt waved his phone at the reckless twin that jumped out of the car. Tricia sat still though and stared at Wyatt.

"What is it Tricia?" Wyatt sighed turning to stare at the calmer twin.

"You could be nicer to Melinda," Tricia noted.

"Melinda doesn't need me to be nicer. She needs me to be meaner." Wyatt shook his head.

"But Pandora?" Tricia frowned.

"Dora had you and HJ to be mean to her, call her out when she makes her mistakes. And truth be told…" Wyatt started.

"We don't have to be ready as soon as Melinda, we still have a few more years until we have to pick up the slack of the charmed ones getting older." Tricia nodded.

"Don't you let Aunt Paige calling her old." Wyatt laughed.

"Wyatt?" Tricia leaned forward, mirroring the actions of Pandora from just minutes ago.

"Yeah?" He smiled as he looked out the window to inspect that Dora was actually traveling around the apartment checking crystals.

"I turn 16 in a few days…" Tricia started.

"Don't tell me you want a sweet sixteen on Halloween, because you know we can't do that." Wyatt shook his head. He had been hearing the whispering from Melinda about a party earlier that afternoon.

"No, no. I want to learn to drive, before I turn 16. I know that I won't be able to get my license at 16… but Dad's been busy and Mom's worried about this whole demon thing…" Tricia tried to explain why she needed someone to teach her.

"How about Saturday T? I can't promise ton of time, but you're a quick learner right?" Wyatt winked at her. Patricia nodded excitedly jumping out of the car.

"Thanks Wy," Tricia smiled giddily.

"Don't tell Dora, I don't want to reward her careless behavior. I might not be tough on her but I'm not softy by any means." Wyatt suggested laughing as Tricia nodded and shut the door. At least the twins could be regular teenagers for a little bit longer, it was comforting to the Twice-Blessed young man that was going back to the manor to lecture his youngest sister and anxiously await his younger brother.

**October 27, 2023 **

Wyatt's head rolled onto his shoulder as he lost his fight against sleep again. The soft light of the morning sun was starting to shine through the window and Bianca's apartment was almost calmly quiet.

At 6:03 AM, a marine fog started crawling into the cracks of the windows. The fog opened the windows enough to let in the fall breeze. As if being carried on the morning light a group of young people materialized in the gray mist. Wyatt's head rolled back on the couch as the entrance of the party he had been awaiting was silent.

Chris stood stronger than the others, a light practically radiating off of him. There were flecks of water on the ends of his shaggy brown hair that had grown out again, miraculously quickly in the magical land of Avalon.

"Let go of her hand." Patience hissed breaking the silence finally. Chris' shoulders tightened but his hand dropped to his side and immediately went into his pocket, leaving Bianca's hand to unnaturally settle on her hip.

Wyatt's eyes fluttered open and his head popped up awake again. The fog was clearing out and the young people stood, tired and worn looking, but completely intact as far as Wyatt could tell. If anything his brother was looking healthier than when he had left and had an aura of power so strong it almost overtook the Twice Blessed witch. Almost.

"Morning Wyatt," Chris smiled widely. His hands had quickly retrieved a glittering object from a leather pouch and before Wyatt could respond the object was hurtling in the air at him. Wyatt's hand reacted before his mind as his elbow reflex of years of playing catch with his father and brother had his fingers tightly around the Golden Apple. The Apple transmitted magic and power into Wyatt it was as if a jolt of coffee had been injected into his blood stream but better. Wyatt no longer felt the headache of lack of sleep coming on and he felt almost giddy.

"It does it to him too, why doesn't the stupid apple not make me feel all brand new?" Patience yawned and pulled a bit of gravel out of her short dark hair. Wyatt then realized that Chris did look much better than the other members of the party, except for Javin. But Javin never did look worse for wear, ever.

"Successful then? Why did it take you guys so long?" Wyatt asked.

"Javin might have underplayed the difficulty of what we set out to do," HJ coughed out glittering gold dust.

"A demon lying, it's completely unheard of." Wyatt rolled his eyes tossing the apple back to his brother. Chris tucked the apple back into the pouch he had pulled it out of as Bianca strode over to her kitchen and started pulling out mugs and snacks. Patience started to sway with exhaustion and Javin steadied her before leading her to the couch. HJ yawned again and stretched out his arms before reaching out and taking a bowl of cereal from Bianca.

"You are a most marvelous creature." HJ smiled hungrily devouring the food. Wyatt was watching his family around him, trying to figure out what to focus on first.

_Maybe sitting at the table might help. _Potter's voice suggested, almost taunted in Wyatt's head. Wyatt frowned but agreed, sitting in one place would be the best place to start. He wandered over to the table and before even sitting down Chris, Bianca and Javin pulled out their own chairs to sit. HJ and Patience were slower to react but they followed without direction.

"We have to tell mom and the aunts about the protection charms." Wyatt started starring directly at his brother. Chris was sitting to Wyatt's right hand shoving a spoonful of yogurt into his mouth and shaking his head.

"Wyatt, something is wrong." Patience stared around the room confused and alert.

"What's wrong Patience?" Chris snapped his eyes up and around searching for danger. His hands were suddenly free and the yogurt was forgotten on the table.

"There is not a demon in here, there can't be." Bianca shook her head.

"I'm a demon," Javin raised his hand lazily.

"Wyatt?" Patience's voice had increased an octave. Wyatt looked at her eyes, swirling into a murky crimson and he knew she knew what was wrong but needed confirmation.

"Patience, you must be calm." Wyatt warned sucking in a deep breath.

"Wy, what's going on?" Chris frowned.

"Something is wrong." HJ let out a choked cough.

"The Brotherhood of the Thorn, an ancient group that was formed by the Source took Dervin and Amelle." Wyatt stated calmly.

"Took them where? What do you mean took them?" Patience leaned forward and glared at her oldest cousin.

"I can't feel Amelle, I can't feel her at all… What does that mean?" HJ was taking shallow breaths trying to control his own panic.

"Mom and the aunts have been looking all day, but Tricia says she has seen us not finding them." Wyatt explained shooting out his arm to grab Patience's wrists as the words escaped his mouth. The young man pressed Patience's arms into the table, holding her steady in her seat and not allowing her to escape.

"Us who? Does she not see mom and the aunts finding them or does she not see us finding them? We are very different powers…" Chris pulled out his phone and set it on the table to let it scry for him.

"We can use one of Chris demonic contacts…" Bianca nodded trying to help.

"You say he took both Dervin and Amelle? At the same time and didn't attack anyone?" Javin asked calmly leaning back in his chair.

"Is someone hurt?" HJ demanded.

"No. Not that we know, and yes they took both… without hurting anyone." Wyatt paused avoiding Patience's glare debating telling her how it was Dervin had disappeared. He knew that the cupitch would find out sooner or later, and he worried that she would blame Melinda wholeheartedly.

"For a source to rise to power, there are a number of things that must happen. Though I'm not privy to much of that hoop-la I do know that there is a blood sacrifice." Javin explained knocking back into the table as the two front legs of his chair settled on the ground.

"LET ME GO." Patience attempted to levitate away from her cousin, away from his grasp. Her body was struggling out of his chair with her wrists still tightly holding her arms against the table. Wyatt refused to release her though.

"No, you can't go wandering around the underworld looking for Dervin right now. It is dangerous." Wyatt tried to explain.

"Patience, I will go see what I can find out. You and HJ have to sleep, Avalon took a lot out of you. You will more of a liability than strength right now. Javin will share some of his refreshing sleep draught, you will sleep three hours and then we will find him." Chris commanded in a soft steady voice. Patience calmed at his plan, at his assurance, at his ease and determination. She floated back down dejected.

"But what if something happens to him?" Patience had tears falling down her cheeks. She was asking Chris not Wyatt, she couldn't even look at Wyatt.

"You will be the first to know if any harm is coming to Dervin, you know that…" Chris smiled at her sadly. She nodded and Chris flicked two of his fingers on his right hand, invisible to Patience but clear to Javin. The youth demon nodded and snapped his fingers to produce three tiny vials of potion.

"Sleep draught. It will help you have a dreamless refreshing sleep without interference from nigt-mares. A problem one of you should really think about fixing…" Javin looked expectantly at the brothers.

"I feel fine." Bianca shook her head impatiently, as she counted the third vial.

"The apple works for Chris and I, not for the rest of you. We need as many functioning forces of good we can get. We have three days before a new source rises. We can still stop this, please?" Wyatt turned and tilted his head into Bianca's cheek. He whispered something else into her ear and she nodded complying.

As the microwave clock started flashing five and the group around the table was wrapping up their plan a flickering red light crackled into a wide-eyed Primrose. The youngest cousin of the bunch was sporting one of her many frilly purple sleeping gowns and her bangs were sticking up as if a balloon had been rubbed against her head. She yawned and blinked not seemingly at all surprised but rather calm that she was standing in a strange kitchen.

"Patience, are you going to find Dervin?" She asked immediately after she finished yawning.

"Prim!" Patience jumped practically falling out of her chair and not successfully managing to get to her youngest sister at all.

"How did you get here?" Wyatt demanded standing from his chair finally.

"Patience was home, I had to make sure she was going to find Dervin. Someone needs to find him, Patience loves him and will be able to find him." Primrose explained in her matter a fact tone that implied she thought Wyatt should know why she was there.

"Prim does Mommy or Daddy know where you are?" Patience managed to work her way out of the chair and held her arms open to the little girl behind her. Prim shrugged not interested in her parents, as the youngest child knew that the roomful of her cousins and oldest sister could protect her just as well as a her parents.

"Do you know where he is? Are Wyatt and Chris going to help you get him?" Primrose asked as she climbed into Patience's lap. Patience stroked the little girl's hair and glanced over to Wyatt, pleading and blaming in the same stare.

"Primrose, I think this is something we can handle without needing to worry about where you are whisking off to." Wyatt stated severely.

"Well you haven't found him." Primrose glared at Wyatt.

"Prim!" Patience shook her head. "We do not talk to Wyatt like that when he's right. You can not run off like this without telling mom or dad." Patience yawned and her body shivered from an invisible draft. Wyatt was up with Bianca instantly and Bianca moved to pull out pillows and blankets from a nearby closet as Wyatt rounded the table to Patience and Primrose.

"Henry you can sleep on the couch, and Javin can conjure another bed for Patience?" Bianca commanded HJ and questioned the demon that was beginning to twitch of boredom. Wyatt meanwhile slid his hands under Primrose's arms and lifted her off of Patience's lap, holding her up to his eye level.

"You cannot use magic whenever you feel like it." Wyatt started a lecture his own parents had given him more times than he cared to recall. Prim wrinkled her nose in disgust and crackled into a flicker. The little girl appeared on hiding behind Chris, who had finally stood up and stretched.

"Primrose," Wyatt's voice was strained with an aggravation that was usually only reserved for his own siblings.

"Wyatt, why don't you make sure everything is in order here and then tell aunt Paige what's up?" Chris smiled.

"Fine, after you talk to aunt Phoebe meet me at the bridge? We'll head down to the Apple see if Benji knows anything?" Wyatt agreed. Chris bent down and scoped up the youngest Cupitch and orbed away from the apartment.

Chris appeared in the middle of the violently pink and purple room that Primrose was still sharing with Penelope. Pen was sitting under her covers with a book propped up on her knees. Her eyes shimmered a fancy color of purple and red as she looked up at her family members nonchalantly.

"I didn't tell them she left." Pen sighed.

"Why?" Chris wondered as he placed Prim down on her bed again.

"I felt Patience too, I figured that's where she was going. When you were both gone, it was as if you were somewhere unreachable. When you arrived back in the city, it's like… well like someone turned on a light again." Pen shrugged. Chris frowned cupid powers were strangely mixed with charmed powers in his cousins but he never questioned it.

"Prim, do you understand how you got to Patience?" Chris asked seriously sitting on the bed and starring at the girl expectantly.

"What do you mean?" Prim crossed her arms defensively recognizing the tone adults used before a lecture.

"Did you know you were using your magic, or did your magic just take you to your sister?" Chris smiling slightly and trying to use his teacher voice more than his concerned older cousin voice. He had worked with Prim for a few months now in the classroom, he recognized all the Halliwell in her on a daily basis and knew the youngest of the bunch was by no means the calmest. Chris actually was starting to believe that Prim might be more of a handful than the rest of them had ever been.

"I don't know." Prim shrugged indifferently. "Are you going to find Dervin or not?"

"We are going to find Dervin, you want to tell me how he got lost?" Chris asked.

"Melinda lost him." Prim complained. "She was suppose to be watching him and then he was gone. I felt it but I didn't go to Melinda, because I knew she couldn't help like you would." Primrose explained.

"Prim, Melinda tried to find him you make it sound like she just didn't want to find him." Pen interjected on behalf of Melinda. Chris turned to look at Pen and stared at her waiting for any more explanation.

"It wasn't Melinda's fault, it wasn't anything to do with jealously." Pen shook her head reading the emotions that were running through Chris. Chris looked surprised and sat quietly for a moment too long.

"Chris you didn't?" Pen cried out. Chris jumped off the bed and jogged to the door.

"Primrose, try not to just show up places today? I can't find Dervin if I'm worried about you wandering around after Patience or me." Chris commanded as he ducked out of the door. Pen stared after him with concerned eyes but went back to reading her book soon enough.

"What did Chris do?" Prim squinted her eyes at her sister.

"Nothing. He didn't do anything." Pen shook her head.

"What are you reading?" Prim squeaked jumping off the bed and gliding over to her sister's bed. Pen closed the book in her lap and slipped it up onto a shelf above her head, too high for Primrose to see even its spine.

"Nothing." Pen smiled sweetly. "Let's get you ready for school, do you want me to make your hair look like Princess Jasmine's today?"

Primrose nodded vigorously all her questions forgotten as she ran to her closet to find an outfit for the day. It wasn't that the youngest child had forgotten her questions; it was that she knew how to pick her battles. In a family full of empathic siblings and parents, Primrose understood how secretive her sisters were of the few emotions they could manage to hide.

It wasn't until hours later, when Prim was sitting in her morning class that her thoughts drifted back to her older sisters. She tapped her index finger onto the page of the book in front of her, a thin novel about a girl who like to imagine things and had red hair. Usually Prim loved reading in class, stories were always slightly more fantastical in magic school curriculum and more to Prim's tastes but not today. Today, she had two stories she was more interested in than that of a little girl named Anne. With a few taps of her finger on each page, the words of the novel rippled like the surface of water and visions of Patience and Penelope appeared in black and white. The visions were forming out of the printed words on the page, intricately forming reflections of elsewhere. Patience was also sitting in class, nervously twitching as she sat at her desk. But Penelope was not in class and Prim had sensed that her sister was not where she was supposed to be. There was an increased heart rate that tasted like guilt and it was a sour aftertaste in Prim's mouth. The youngest Cupitch had powers that often manifested as one of her five senses, often in smell or taste. She watched as Pen was roaming the halls with a boy, a non-distinct boy in the word image meaning that Primrose didn't know the boy.

"Miss Halliwell," Professor Weiss was standing over Prim and her floating book in seconds, casting a shadow over her dancing word images. Prim looked up with a smile as she carefully tapped her book with her index finger again.

"There is to be no magic in our morning classes, we've talked about this." Professor Weiss looked slightly annoyed. It was true that the frequency to which Primrose was using magic was concerning many of her morning professors. The younger children at Magic School were allowed only afternoon magic classes, and even then only one a day. It was a firm belief of Headmaster Wyatt, her own uncle, that elementary school children should be focusing more on the foundation of their education.

"I'm sorry Professor Weiss." Prim shrugged though she didn't look sorry at all, in fact she wasn't sorry. Professor Weiss nodded deciding that maybe it was fair to let the girl off with just a warning again.

"Please pay attention to what we're reading, I don't want to have to talk to you again." The older teacher walked away and started reading from the text in her hands again. Prim waited a few minutes, listening to how Anne smacked a chalkboard over a boy's head before she tapped her middle finger into the crease of the book in front of her. Learning from her first incident this time the young witch made the pages of the book transform into her older sister's diary. Prim preferred Patience's diary on most occasions, as Patience was the one with all the romance in her life her diary read like a movie or television show she wasn't allowed to watch. But today, she wanted to know about Penelope.

Pen had been acting strangely for days, since she had returned from the past there had been a new smell to her that Prim couldn't understand. She started reading the page in front of her an entry from the beginning of the week in the fancy old-fashioned cursive that her quieter sister preferred. Pen had learned years ago, before her diary became an interest of Prim that if she wrote in cursive it would be harder for her youngest sister to read. Years of practice had made Primrose a bit of an expert in the out-dated form of writing.

_She doesn't know. She can't. If she did, she would tell me. But she hasn't said anything. Most of the time I don't think she even understands. What I've seen… I just don't think I'm wrong anymore. The more I watch, the more I notice that I could be right. I could be right so many ways though, but the strongest vision. The strongest vision would be awful. _

Primrose bit the inside of her cheek in annoyance, even when writing to herself Penelope was being cryptic. She only read until the end of the page before Professor Weiss cast a shadow over her again. Her book was floating about in front of her again, it was an unfortunate side effect of her magic that Prim had not learned how to control or even learned to notice.

"Miss Halliwell that's enough, collect your things and go down to the Headmaster's office please." Professor Weiss was done dealing with the girl now. She was starting to have flashbacks to Wyatt and Chris with Prim, and the professor wanted to deal with that growing problem sooner rather than later. Though Wyatt and Chris had spent years going back and forth between regular mortal school and magic school, they had wrecked havoc on the professors of magic school for years. None of the other children had been so dismissive of the rules, or flaunted their powers so incredibly since the brothers but Primrose was starting to show early signs. Though by the age of ten Wyatt and Chris had already made several enemies on the staff and had a entire filing cabinets, they themselves had filed, on their misdeeds and Primrose was still considerably mild mannered comparatively.

Prim shuffled loudly and obnoxiously causing a ruckus in class until she trudged out the door. She skipped along the hall, taking a detour to her uncle's office to where she knew one of her sister's was hiding. The endless hallway of Magic School was much more than just a hallway and when you knew where you were going, a student or teacher could use the many tiny pockets of secrets to their advantage. Young Penelope Halliwell was currently using an invisible nook to her advantage, as she was innocently kissing the most popular boy in her class, Skylar Heinke. Prim stumbled into the same space as Skylar was pushing one of his hands underneath the hem of Pen's slinky off the shoulder top. Pen quickly pushed down his hand, away from her stomach as her head tilted away from his and her eyes rolled around to glue on her little sister.

"What are you doing here?" She hissed harshly.

"Who?' Skylar jumped around and stared at the little Primrose.

"What are you doing here?" Primrose shot back. She was growing weary of how her sisters never let her into their grown up lives.

"None of your business, did you get kicked out of class?" Pen eyed the books in Prim's hands suspiciously.

"Did you not go to class?" Prim mimicked her sister's tone. Pen stood up and glared at Primrose but before anything could happen, Kyle Broody had stepped into the space.

"Skylar, I suggest you head to class before I assign you a 3,000 word essay on the edict of Leprechaun festivals due tomorrow." Kyle motioned his head towards the hallway.

"Yes sir," Skylar nodded stepping around Pen and Prim. He pressed his body as close to the wall and as far from Kyle as possible as he ducked back into the hall.

"But if I find out you aren't punished for your tardiness, because you've charmed you're way out of it. I will assign you lines, every day next week." Kyle warned. Kyle Broody was one of the few professors that heavily relied on the use of physical writing as a cure for deviant behavior. Skylar nodded again and muttered something before running down the hall. He turned to stare at two of his three charges.

"Girls, let's go. You know where we are going." Kyle placed a hand on each of the girls' shoulders and led them out of the nook. There was a static tension that surrounded the three people as they moved along the endless hallway until getting to the large wooden door of Leo's office.

Leo was pacing around with a long list in his hands as Phoebe and Piper sat at his desk fighting over the placement of the 452 pumpkins at the dance. Leo sighed as he turned around to face his two nieces and their undercover white lighter.

"Prim, I received word from Professor Weiss you were using your magic again?" Leo stared down at the youngest carefully. Phoebe's head popped up suddenly ignoring her argument with Piper and starring over at her daughters.

"I have magic, why shouldn't I use it." Primrose shrugged. "Weren't you all worried I wouldn't have magic and now that I do, no one wants me to use it!"

"Primrose Charlotte, you do not talk to Leo like that." Phoebe snapped her fingers at her youngest child.

"It's true mommy, why can't I use my magic when I want?" Prim turned around and fluttered her eyes for her mother.

"Well baby…" Phoebe started.

"Phoebe, please?" Leo sighed trying to control the bemused smile that was sneaking onto his face.

"Right, sorry." Phoebe muttered.

"Prim you know the rules, right?" Leo asked hunching down to make eye contact. Years of experience with students and his own children, made Leo Wyatt immune to cute puppy dog expressions and excuses on the most part.

"Yes." Prim frowned.

"You remember what we talked about the last time you used magic in your morning classes?" Leo asked her again.

"Yes." Prim wrinkled her nose in disgust. Leo had warned her that she would have to file in the magic-sealed room behind his office, the same room Wyatt and Chris had spent most of their young lives in.

"All right then, leave your stuff over there and off with you. All the files settled on the bottom shelf of the cart are on the bottom of the filing cabinets." Leo said softly and stood back up expecting the girl to do as she was told. Prim moved away and placed her things down on the table and then smiled as she skipped over to her mother and aunt. Phoebe automatically hugged her youngest child and Piper cast a judging stare at her sister.

"Penelope?" Leo frowned.

"I'm sorry Uncle Leo." Pen murmured casting her glance down to her feet.

"You're academic standing is falling below the mandatory point for entrance into the dance." Leo stared down at his list, having just arrived at the H's. Primrose was chatting happily to her mother about what she had seen in her magical mirror to her sisters in class.

"She was suppose to meet me for her make-up class in History and instead I found her with Skylar Heinke." Kyle explained.

"I'm sorry you found her where?" Phoebe stood up. Primrose had just finished telling Phoebe the same bit of news.

"Phoebe," Leo reminded his sister-in-law. "Primrose, I asked you to do something?"

"I was talking to Mommy." Primrose frowned at her uncle.

"I can see that, but that is not what you are suppose to be doing." Leo pointed to the back door. Piper stifled a laugh, her poor husband had to still be the levelheaded parent even for her sister's children.

"Penelope, I want you to go with Professor Broody we will talk about this later." Leo sighed again staring down at his long list and at his wife and sister-in-law. October was always a busy month at Magic School, the rising source and the teenage rebellion of his nieces, nephew and own children was not making it any less hectic.

"Yes uncle Leo, sorry again." Pen muttered looking truly contrite but not looking Leo in the eye. Kyle led Pen out of the office and Leo stared after the young girl for a second making a mental note about trying to truly find out what was going on with her. Primrose was still standing with her mother when Leo turned around.

"Prim?" Leo snapped sternly.

"I want to know why I'm not allowed to do anything!" Prim wailed as the waterworks started.

"Stop that." Piper tapped her niece on the shoulder.

"I just wanted to know what Pen was hiding and if Patience had found Dervin, I don't understand why that is wrong." Primrose choked a fake sob. Before the adults in the room could resolve anything else, Wyatt and Chris appeared in office with Paige.

"Almost on time, just 10 minutes late." Piper stared at her wristwatch.

"It was completely aunt Paige's fault." Chris smiled at his mother.

"I don't doubt it." Piper nodded.

"You boys have something you want to tell us?" Phoebe remembered.

"I think Chris has something he wants to share with the group," Leo stated pointedly. Chris shoved his hands into his pockets locking his elbows in defense. Wyatt meanwhile noticed Primrose and stared down at her letting his blue eyes pierce into her.

"What did you do?" Wyatt questioned her.

"Wyatt, don't sound so mean." Piper shook her head at her oldest child. Chris bent down and beckoned the youngest girl into his arms.

"Oh look now they are both going to use each other to distract from whatever it is they did…" Paige commented sitting on Leo's desk.

"Paige there are chairs," Leo kicked one of his chairs towards his sister-in-law.

"Using magic in morning classes again?" Chris questioned Prim. Prim shrugged refusing to admit anything.

"Dad making you file things without magic?" Chris asked glancing up at his father knowingly. Primrose nodded starring at Chris, as if willing him to fix the situation.

"Tried crying to your mom to get out of it?" Chris smiled at Prim. Prim frowned. Chris was always very direct with her. She nodded again though sheepishly this time.

"And if you go file things you are just going to eavesdrop on what we're talking about?" Chris nodded and looked up at Wyatt. Wyatt nodded now and snapped his fingers. Melinda suddenly materialized in the office.

"Wyatt! You can't just snap your fingers for your every beck and call!" Melinda stamped her foot.

"She's suppose to be in school Wyatt," Leo's voice was warning.

"She wasn't there anyway dad, she was trying to follow us here." Chris stood up picking up Prim from the ground.

"Melinda, since when did you start ditching school?" Piper crossed her arms.

"Look, can you all parent later? We're on a timeline…" Chris begged walking over to his younger sister.

"Christopher," Piper snapped.

"He's right mom." Wyatt nodded. Chris threw his arm around Melinda's shoulder and pushed her out of the office with Primrose. The three of them stood in the endless hallway.

"You want to help Melinda, watch Primrose. Do not try to eavesdrop and try not to lose our youngest cousin." Chris snapped bitterly handing off Prim.

"You, behave." Chris pitched Prim's cheek and walked back into the office.

"Chris tastes like something hot…" Primrose scowled.

"He's mad at me." Melinda sighed dejected.

"Very mad." Primrose nodded.

"Yes." Melinda stared at the closed door hopefully, for a moment thinking Wyatt would come back out and get her.

"For losing Dervin?" Prim nodded. "Penelope is mad at me for being nosy."

"Been reading her diary again?" Melinda smiled putting Primrose down as she was not able to carry her as easily as her taller brother.

"Yes, this morning I figured out how to watch my sisters too." Prim nodded.

"Watch them, do you think you could figure out how to watch what's happening in the office right now?" Melinda looked deviously at the closed door as the two cousins started walking down the hall.

"If we find a book…" Primrose nodded eagerly excited that someone wanted her to use her newfound power.

* * *

_I know these chapters have been long with a lot going on, but we're arriving at our main point and there are a ton of characters with plently going on... _

The whole quest to Avalon, I decided to skip over I might write into a short story when this one is done. I think there is about two more chapters left of this one. Let me know what you think so far!


	19. Won't Tell You His Plan

**Won't Tell You His Plan **

_Pumped up Kicks, Foster the People _

**October 29, 2023 **

Wyatt stood high above the city of San Francisco leaning against the red beam of the bridge studying a view most people would never even imagine. The darkness of the night seemed imaginary as the light of the city jittered with movement all around him. It was right before sunrise and the crisp cold of the bay area was battering enough that Wyatt tugged at the collar of his leather jacket to protect from the breeze. A bright light was dancing around the edges of the earth and Wyatt twitched as he felt a new day dawning because he felt the weight of his entire family's exhaustion remain.

"Your father must have passed on his genetic like for this meeting place." A women in the regal robes of an elder appeared next to the young man. She smiled at him warmly and followed his gaze out onto the city.

"I think I pick the habit up from my brother." Wyatt shrugged trying to control the resentment. Chris had inherited his own distaste for the elders.

"Ah yes, Christopher does spend quite a bit of time up here. Something about the altitude must help him think clearly." The woman nodded.

"Maybe that's why he doesn't think when he's at a regular altitude." Wyatt muttered more for himself than for the elder. He ran a hand through his curls before turning to face the elder. She was smiling, a warm maternal smile that made Wyatt cringe with suspicion.

"We've heard quite a bit from the Halliwell clan lately."

"Aunt Paige came up to talk about the ritual." Wyatt nodded.

"And Sam came requesting a leave of absence, as you might call it, from his normal charges." The woman added.

"What for?" Wyatt asked confused.

"To protect his family, of course. That is what you Halliwells are usually concerned with, each other." The elder's voice was neutral, not judging but merely stating the obvious fact but Wyatt's shoulders tense nonetheless. "You are all very sweet about it."

"Is it sweet to panic that one of your family members might die every other day?" Wyatt hissed. There was tense silence between the young man and the ancient elder.

"You called me here." The elder prompted.

"We can't find Henry's charge. Do you guys know where she is?" Wyatt asked tactlessly.

"In the underworld, with the young Dervin Rogers." The Elder responded. "But we are limited in our ability to know anything past that information. We just know they are in the underworld." She explained.

"Why can't you just stop the source yourselves?" Wyatt demanded crossing his arms. His eyes watch the sun rise as he refused to look at the elder, refused to show his weakness.

"Because, that's not our fight." The elder replied simply.

"And you can't help with the nigt-mares, or with the prophecy that Chris heard…" Wyatt shook his head in frustration.

"Your family has a great deal of guidance within, as we speak your mother and her sisters are calling for the spirit of your oldest aunt. We are allowing your family members to return to help with the prophecy." The elder explained.

"Allowing." Wyatt scoffed. He clenched his fists trying to hold in the power that was pulsing through his body.

"Your fight has barely begun young man, don't hold on to so much anger so early." The elder suggested.

"Do you have anything that might help with this?" Wyatt sighed, forcing his voice to sound calm.

"I have given you all the information we have on this threat. I should warn you there is another dark cloud on the horizon, we're not sure what it is yet but it is brewing and might be related to the rising source but also might be something else entirely." The elder shared.

"That's just awesome, do you ever get tired of bringing bad news?" Wyatt sighed. He punched into the beam with just enough force to send his own magic reverberating off the red steel.

"I think you should get some sleep, you are beginning to sound like your brother." The elder commented.

"What's wrong with Chris?" Wyatt finally turned to stare at the elder. His face was set in a familiar glower and his magic popped around him in a force field that was natural to him as breathing.

"Nothing, aside from his hostile attitude towards elders." The woman stated, shaking her head at the sudden lack of control from the most level headed of the charmed children.

"I wonder where he gets that from… Do you really expect a different attitude from us?" Wyatt questioned his eyebrows shooting up.

"One day your brother will have to learn he can't just ignore us. You must make sure you save Amelle, she is important to the grand design." The elder warned ignoring Wyatt's question.

"Yes, I've heard." Wyatt snapped while yawning. "No one thought Pandora's Box was a bad idea?"

"Be well young Wyatt. And remember we don't control the world, we merely help guide it for the greater good." The elder commented before disappeared into orbs. Wyatt leaned his head against the red support closing his eyes, debating a nap on the golden gate bridge for a few minutes. A nap before returning to the world below, to the looming problems that felt never ending and seemed to be growing larger by the second. But silence and peace were stolen moments for the twice-blessed young man as he felt the rumbling of panic hit his gut. Without preemptive thought or decision, the young man disappeared into the world below following the call of his family.

The feeling of floating lulled Wyatt into a sense of calm enough to let him close his eyes until his feet were materialized enough to feel the ground beneath him. The familiar scent of his brother and girlfriend filled the air of the apartment, along with dusty crystals and fresh apples. The shuffling and screeching of the bottom of his brother's shoes reminded him why he had hurried down from his nap on the Golden Gate Bridge.

When he opened his eyes and his attention was captivated, leaving him frozen on the scene that lay before him. On the couch, Bianca was resting most of her body into Chris side. Chris had one arm around Bianca's sleeping shoulders and the rest of his body was twitching and struggling against unknown demons. Chris was muttering and suddenly, Bianca's right arm moved across her torso and effortlessly started soothing Chris by rubbing circles onto his chest. They looked comfortable and if Wyatt didn't know better he might believe they looked like a couple. Wyatt tilted his head, studying the scene with confusion as he bounced on his feet nervously. The sound of Wyatt's slight movement alerted Chris to his brother's presence and in a blink of an eye, the younger man had fallen off the couch and startled Bianca awake.

"Are you all right?" Wyatt dashed over holding a hand out to help Chris off the ground. Chris blinked several times nervously starring up at his older brother before he shakily took his hand.

"Was just dying again." Chris muttered darkly as he stole a glance at Bianca. She was still asleep, curled up with her right hand hanging over the edge of the couch open.

"I thought you were going to use the dream catchers if you fell asleep?" Wyatt sighed looking around for the object.

"Fell asleep on accident, wasn't really our plan. They have anything to say?" Chris stretched his arms high above his head and twisted around.

"No, but you knew they wouldn't." Wyatt frowned letting his eyes dance between his slumbering girlfriend and suspiciously nervous acting younger brother.

"Want to sleep while I check on the aunts and mom then?" Chris pushed his hands into his pockets and locked his elbows. Wyatt's eyes focused on Chris' arms, starring at the locked elbow, his little brother's tell. Memories started coming back to him from the time that Chris stole his favorite baseball glove to the time he crashed his father's car a few years back.

"Wy? Wyatt?" Chris had jerked his hand out of his pocket and was snapping his fingers inches from his brother's nose.

"Yeah, go on then. Try not to get grounded while your home, don't mouth off?" Wyatt begged.

"I do not mouth off, that's Melinda." Chris smiled.

"I forget. You call your mouthing off sarcastic charm is it?" Wyatt cracked a smile. Chris winked at his brother and started disappearing into white lights. Wyatt nodded and kicked off his shoes and carefully picked up Bianca's head before settling on the couch. He pulled out his phone and warned Patricia they might have to reschedule their driving lesson.

"He gave me his word he wouldn't hurt you." Bianca whispered. Wyatt put his phone away and started stroking her hair lovingly. He wondered what she might be dreaming of as he yawned.

The attic to the manor was unnaturally clean and cleared. All the old antiques and boxes of Halliwell history had been orbed down into the basement to be dealt with on another day. Paige had spent the night before preparing the attic, neutralizing and purifying the space of the Charmed Ones power with herbs and tokens. The wooden circular table sat in the exact center of the room with nine pewter bowls given to Chris as a gift from the fairies of Avalon to help in his quest. Piper was lighting another candle, the one that sat three down from where the Book of Shadows rested as the grandfather clock stopped chiming somewhere below. Piper scanned over the attic and all the materials on the round table and she carefully rearranged a set of baskets by the door before stepping out onto the stairs. Chris appeared right behind her in the doorway of the attic.

"Christopher," Piper snapped without turning around.

"Morning mom," Chris leaned forward and pecked his mother on the cheek. Piper walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. The smell of fresh apples boiling with cinnamon alerted Chris to pie baking his mother had started for Halloween.

"Morning mom, sorry I haven't been sleeping in my bed and worrying you sick for most of the last two weeks." Piper badly tried to mimic her son's voice. Chris knew his mother was upset, as she had been since he had graduated from high school.

"Are you going to bake pumpkin too?" Chris asked hopeful. Piper reached the bottom of the stairs and spun around with one hand on her hip and the other one shooting up to cup Chris' chin. She pulled down her tall son and started inspecting his face.

"This protection enchantment takes three days and you just told me about it yesterday and you want me to bake you pumpkin pie?" Piper's lip indented in as she critical glared at her son.

"I really like your pumpkin pie?" Chris offered smiling widely and forcing his eyes wide to look innocent. Piper rolled her eyes and licked her thumb and started scrubbing something from her son's cheek.

"Mom!" Chris yelped as he pulled his chin away from her grip. The shuffling of feet and high-pitched disgruntled squeals pulled Piper's gaze away from her son. The oldest charmed one traveled around her kitchen, gliding towards her pots and beginning to stir the mixture as she increased the temperature. Phoebe kicked the back kitchen door open with her boot clad foot huffing while she struggled with a large brown paper bag. Chris jogged over to his aunt and immediately took the bag from her arms.

"I should have had a son." Phoebe smiled brightly at Chris before glaring down at her own daughter. Primrose stuck her tongue out at her mother as she stormed into the kitchen making as much noise and dragging every bit of dirt she could.

"Primrose! Stop that!" Phoebe clapped her hands reproaching her youngest actions. Piper snapped her head up from her apples and clanked her wooden ladle against the handle of the pot.

"We are running a cleansing spell, stop bringing that attitude into the house." Piper glared at her younger sister.

"Why couldn't I stay home?" Primrose wailed.

"Prim!" Chris coughed concerned that the youngest witch in his family could ruin the complicated spell he had been preparing for. Prim ignored him though and glared straight at her mother.

"If you don't stop whining Primrose, I am going to put you in a corner for a time out." Phoebe blew her own hair out of her face. Piper masked her laughter in a cough as she stirred her boiling apples and added cinnamon. Chris looked nervously at his mother hoping she would put an end to the fighting that could make the cleansing spell collapse.

"I don't know why I couldn't stay home with Penelope!" Primrose wailed.

"Mom," Chris tilted his head and started tapping his fingers expectantly against the kitchen counter.

"Your sister was running a fever and wanted to sleep, you would have just bother her all day." Phoebe explained again as she started pulling out the items from the brown bag next to Chris.

"Why couldn't I stay with Patience?" Primrose screeched. Chris jumped at this point and orbed to his youngest cousin.

"That's enough." Chris stated firmly as he threw the little girl over his shoulder and shook her slightly before walking out of the back door. Phoebe stared after her nephew and daughter and Piper started laughing.

"He'll take care of that now," Piper winked at her sister.

"What…" Phoebe began.

"My neurotic boy will not even let the princess of the family destroy all the work of the protection charms." Piper shrugged.

"Our fighting wasn't going to really affect the cleansing spell." Phoebe frowned.

"It might." Piper shrugged. "I would prefer to not take to many chances with a process that's going to take us three days." Piper sighed tapping some cinnamon into her boiling apples. Phoebe folded up the empty paper bag and turned to look out the kitchen window. Chris was bent down with his index finger pointing right into Primrose's downturn nose.

"I got the toadstool and sage, also the unicorn horn dust though that was a lot harder to find and expensive." Phoebe explained to her sister. Piper nodded and started pulling out different types of pots and pans, fancy chalices and stone bowls.

"We have to summon our first ghost in six hours. We have to summon exactly six more family members, so it's Prue…" Piper held up a finger.

"Mom and Grams," Phoebe nodded as Piper held up two more fingers.

"Do you think we can use Coop and Leo?" Piper asked.

"Can we summon Leo's old powers for the ritual?" Phoebe wondered.

"I'll call Paige and have her ask the elders." Piper pulled out her phone. "It might be more powerful if we use some of their direct family magic."

"Even then we only have five, who is the sixth?" Phoebe asked.

"Melinda Warren?" Piper asked as she pressed the phone up to her cheek. A crashing noise came from the foyer of the manor as Paige shouted into the kitchen.

"I'm not answering my phone because I just walked in, don't leave me a message!"

Piper and Phoebe ran into the entrance of the old house expecting to be meet with a demon, or two by the sounds of crash. But instead the two older witches found most of the contents of Paige's purse on the ground and a bright pink shoe with a broken heel underneath the table. Not to mention, Paige ungracefully sitting on the wooden floor with one bare foot and a tear in her skirt.

"Pandora did you borrow these shoes again and break them?" Paige fumed as she scrambled off the ground collecting all the knick-knacks she carried with her daily. Tricia was holding open her mother's empty bag as Paige threw in each item.

"Aren't you too old to be wearing that color anyway Paige?" Phoebe laughed.

"Helpful really…" Paige muttered sending her sister a murderous glare.

"Mom, wouldn't it be easier…" Dora snapped both her fingers and everything flew back into Paige's purse and her broken heel mended and popped back onto the pale foot of Paige Matthews.

"Pandora, magic." Piper sighed. Unwarranted uses of magic were expressly forbidden in the manor by Piper somewhere around the time that Chris turned three, though not one day went by that Piper didn't have to remind someone of the rule.

_Leo was sitting on the coffee table in front of the couch, Chris small seven-year old frame cushioned in-between his father's knees. Wyatt watched from the doorframe, arms crossed and viewing the whole scene from higher than his original memory. _

_ "Buddy, did you take your brother's baseball glove?" Leo asked, ever so patiently and non-accusatory. Wyatt had always resented his father's innocent until proven guilty attitude with his brother, but sometimes he begrudgingly admired the calm levelheaded man his father had always been. _

_ Wyatt watched as Chris looked straight into their father's eyes and smiled ever so slightly, emanating a sense of cool innocence. The little boy slyly tucked his hands into his pockets and as he opened his mouth, his elbows locked and his arms were as straight as rulers. _

_ "No, Dad. Wyatt is just mad because he can't remember where he put it." Chris shook his head, his green eyes flashing slightly with an excitement that Wyatt recognized too. Chris always did like getting away with things, the thrill it gave him was matched by nothing other than demon fighting itself. _

_ "Your brother is a magnificent liar. It explains why it frustrates him so that he can't lie to himself." The slow drawl of Potter's voice pulled Wyatt's eyes from his young brother and younger father. Potter stood leaning against the opposite side of the frame. When Wyatt turned to look at him, Potter shifted his body to mimic the position of Wyatt's. Suddenly, it was as if Wyatt was starring into a mirror. Not a regular mirror, not one that showed his actual reflection but one that showed his features in a dark, dangerous light. Potter was the same height as Wyatt, but instead of having the golden locks inherited from Leo Wyatt the young man had messier looser curls in an ominous black. Potter had more angular features than Wyatt, but there was something about his eye's shape or the way his cheeks wrinkled around his mouth that seemed vaguely familiar. It was his eyes that had Wyatt speechless, in all the dreams that Wyatt had seen Potter in over the last few weeks he had never noticed his eyes. Potter had tri-colored irises an outer ring of black, a middle ring of brown and the center a hazel green. _

_"Staring is impolite Wyatt," Potter mocked blinking and turning his head away from Wyatt and back into the living room. But the living room was not the living room anymore it was the garage of the manor instead. A plain skeleton vision of the garage, the 1941 fully restored vintage Ford pick-up truck that Leo had recently finally finished sat glittering in the sunlight. It was a dark green, a color that matched Chris wide scared eyes as he orbed back into the garage. _

_ "Wyatt, I didn't mean to. It just, I was just fooling around and now…" Chris muttered nervously waving at the front side of the garage. Wyatt strode forward, remembering the moment when he saw the broken wood of the garage door and the mangled front of his father's prized possession. _

_ "Chris, what were you thinking?" Wyatt delivered his lines as he studied the damage. The scratched paint, the broken headlights, the bent grill, and every detail he remembered spending the next few months replacing. _

_ "Wyatt, I'm already grounded. I've been grounded for only a week, and I'm grounded until the end of the month. Dad's going to kill me," Chris started pacing. _

_ "What happened to the garage door!" Leo's voice was louder than usual, suspicious and ready. Wyatt was 16, Chris was 15 and Melinda was a freshly turned surly 13 year-old. Leo Wyatt was still calm and levelheaded but he was much better at instilling fear in his troublesome teenagers by this point. The ruined garage door signaled trouble to the father of three, the type of trouble someone was going to spend a lot of time explaining. Chris shivered and stumbled back into his father's tool table as Leo stepped in and Wyatt felt an intense need to protect his little brother overtake him. _

_ "Boys, what happened here?" Leo asked alarmed. He glanced over both his sons, quickly taking in if there were any signs of physical harm but when none caught his blue eyes. The once white lighter, once elder, once avatar hurried over to examine his collapsing car. _

_"Boys, someone explain now, or you are both grounded for two months." Leo threatened as he noticed how hard the impact of the car into the garage door must have been, and how it must have been from outside. One of his sons had taken out his restored car, the car he had restored for them, but not for their teenaged selves. _

_ The memory flickered and Potter was standing behind Wyatt again, quietly observing. _

_ "I wanted to see how it drove Dad, it wasn't Chris fault." Wyatt spat out the words. Chris smiled widely at his brother, silently thanking him and letting the color return to his face. _

_ "Wyatt Matthew Halliwell, what were you doing that you drove into the garage door?" Leo asked still bent over the front of the car. Chris started mouthing the words to his older brother, the story of what had happened. _

_ "I was distracted and hit the gas instead of the brake, because there was this girl…" Wyatt struggled not to shout at Chris for his stupidity. A girl? A girl had caused his little brother to almost drive through part of the house. _

_ "Is this true Christopher? Did you see this happen?" Leo stood up to stare at his youngest son. It was experience that made Leo force eye contact when asking for truth from his second son, Wyatt was a bad liar but Chris, he was a natural. _

_ "Yeah dad." Chris nodded his hands twitching in his pockets as his elbows locked instantly. _

_ "You know, you're father knew that Chris had driven the car. He knew his tell back then," Potter commented from behind Wyatt. The vision of the dream flickered again and Wyatt stumbled to the left. _

_ "Dad grounded me for a month, no way he knew Chris had done it." Wyatt shook his head. _

_ "Oh he knew. He grounded you for a month anyway, partially for the crime you were taking the blame for and partially for lying." Potter mocked. Wyatt stumbled to the right as the vision shook viciously. _

_ "Interesting." Potter murmured before Wyatt was suddenly standing in a corner, a plain white corner in his mother's kitchen. A corner he recognized all too well… _

"Shut up." Wyatt muttered angrily in his sleep and Bianca glanced nervously up at Chris. Bianca was sitting on the ground in the same place she had landed when Wyatt pushed her twenty-three minutes earlier. Chris frowned at his sleeping brother and glanced over his shoulder at the time for the seventh time in the last five minutes. Scratching the back of his neck, the younger brother walked over to the round table of Bianca's kitchen where HJ and Patience sat starring at a map of San Francisco.

"But mom," Wyatt murmured as he struggled and fought to turn around on the couch. Bianca punched out her elbows and pushed the tall frame of Wyatt Halliwell back onto the couch as it had tried to edge off the cushions.

"Wonderful, he's dreaming about me." Chris sighed and rolled his eyes.

"How do you know?" Bianca pushed Wyatt into the couch with her knee as she stood up and turned around to stare at the group in the kitchen. Patience's eyes flickered up from the map, a knowing gaze following the slow deliberate movements of Bianca across the room.

"That's his Chris' fault, Chris' idea, Chris' stupid plan… voice." Chris shrugged as he looked at the clock once more.

"The nigt-mares might be targeting to make him relive all those moments you almost died." HJ commented starring at his sleeping oldest cousin.

"It hasn't been that many times." Chris glared at HJ and started tapping his fingers against the wooden table.

"We can't keep waiting, we've wasted enough time." Patience stated simply voicing the anxiety radiating from Chris.

"We've already tried looking for them everyway we know how." Henry sighed holding a tiny crystal over the map again.

"Maybe if we…" Patience started voicing another option but Chris wasn't listening. Instead he was listening to the whispering of his slumbering brother as his eyes glanced at the old woodprint of the witch burning.

_Fascinating thought really. _Potter's voice suddenly echoed inside Chris head. Chris burrowed his eyebrows together as he staring back and forth between Wyatt and the burning witch.

_No, he wouldn't necessarily like it. But the odd thing about you is that you don't understand that he would do it anyway, because your plans are usually rather sound. _Potter explained.

"Like Wyatt has ever said anything I have planned is sound." Chris muttered as he watched his brother punch into the air. The younger brother shuddered as he imagined the fist contact with his jaw, which he was sure what his intended target had been. Bianca rubbed the back of Chris bicep softly as she responded to something HJ had said.

_Time stops for no Halliwell. _Potter commented sadly and then there was no more commentary. Chris focused again and instead of trying to understand where the conversation had gone, he took over.

"Look, we're being attacked by demons maybe we should talk to some demons." Chris sighed.

"Javin doesn't know anything." Patience snapped throwing a coffee mug towards the hardwood floor of the kitchen only to fling her fingers out just in time to freeze it.

"Javin is hardly the only demon I know Patience," Chris rolled his eyes.

"Seriously though, you wonder why Wyatt is so paranoid about you?" Henry stared incredulously. Chris immediately smacked HJ in the back of the head and swooped down and grabbed the frozen mug from midair.

"Javin is hardly the only demon you even know Patience," Chris smiled knowingly.

"What are you talking about? I don't associate with demons as easily as you do, amoral secretive idiot that is probably the reason we are in this mess to begin with." Patience's eyes started pulsing colors, from dark red to light hazel.

"You, Patience know a demon so dark and gritty he is doomed to walk the earth in the ghost plane for the rest of eternity…" Chris explained as he swung a chair around and sat down at the table. Patience cocked her head and stared at Chris sitting in front of her, she could feel the warmth burning up into her cheeks and suddenly she felt faint.

"Do you think Prince could help?" Patience swayed in her seat slightly.

"I think he's the only source of all evil we know that's ever been on our side…" Chris shrugged. "So it's worth a try."

"But that's not what you're doing?" HJ questioned.

"No, no. I am going to visit Benji." Chris shrugged. Bianca settled her hand onto the boy's shoulder and smiled at HJ and Patience.

"I will go with him to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble." Bianca announced.

"We are not like Wyatt, we do not think he needs a babysitter. In our experience, Chris has always been able to function alone." Patience huffed.

"Wyatt doesn't think he needs a babysitter either, contrary to popular belief." Bianca smiled sweetly as her hand practically recoiled from Chris.

"I want you and HJ to find out as much from Cole as you can, summon him here. Figure out if Cole can lead us to where they might hold the sacrifices, so when Wyatt wakes up and I get back we can go down there are rescue your boyfriend and your charge." Chris directed standing up and holding out his hand to Bianca again.

"C, can I talk to you." Patience croaked shooting out her hand. Chris frowned stretching out his hand towards Patience instead of Bianca. Patience's nail scraped against the inside of Chris fingers and he expertly swallowed the girl in his own orbs.

"Where…?" Bianca started.

"When Patience says C, she means to talk to him in private." HJ shrugged.

"That's strange." Bianca frowned.

"It's something they've done since Chris helped Patience forge a bad grade on a test in the second grade." HJ explained nonchalantly.

Behind the closed door of Bianca's room, Patience leaned against the wall weakly. Chris gently pushed the back of his hand against the girl's forehead.

"You are burning up. Are you sick? Penelope is home with a fever…" Chris caught Patience before she stumbled onto the floor.

"Stop," Patience choked back vomit that she could feel raising. "Stop, this will pass. I needed to talk to you…" Patience struggled with her own feet that seem mutinous against her.

"About what?" Chris sighed clutching her elbows and holding the girl still.

"Wyatt loves her." Patience whispered.

"Seriously? You had me worried something was seriously wrong and you want to talk about love? Not all of us are cupids." Chris rolled his eyes as he carefully spun the girl around and shrouded his arm around her shoulders.

"C, this is important. You have to understand…" Patience shivered choking back a cough.

"When Wyatt wakes, we'll get him to heal you and Pen. You can't be this sick that could be dangerous." Chris frowned as he led the girl out of Bianca's room and back into the main living space. Patience collapsed and Chris snapped his fingers before the girl hit the ground and glided her gently into Bianca's meticulously made bed behind them.

"HJ try to heal her a bit, enough to get her to call Cole so that you two can get more information. Do not go anywhere until we come back." Chris commanded his younger cousin. Chris gave Wyatt one last hopeful glance as Bianca slipped her arm around his arm.

_Come on Wyatt, we don't have time to let our fears consume us today. _Chris sent the message to his brother, unsure if their new way of communicated worked when one of them was asleep.

Leo shifted his truck into park and Henry stepped into the manor's driveway holding a large tray of Chinese food. Leo reached behind him and picked up the two bags of soda before jumping out of the car. The two men had been sent out to retrieve lunch, a job they had been more than use to as the only two mortals of the Charmed family.

"Leo," Henry sighed.

"Yeah?" Leo stared at his younger brother in law suspiciously, recognizing the tone as one of his family members saying something that might cause yelling.

"Have you thought that this protection charm thing might be an elaborate scheme developed by Chris to keep everyone busy." Henry sighed as Leo pulled out his house keys.

"Yes," Leo nodded sadly. "But it's not just one of my son's scheme to prove himself this time."

"You don't think that he and Wyatt are going to try to go after the rising source?" Henry frowned.

"Yes I think they will. But I don't think that's why they are trying to keep everyone busy, I think it just has happened this way." Leo shrugged trudging into the kitchen.

"I just would prefer that if my children were going down into the underworld to try to stop the source of all evil, they would be doing it with Paige there as their back up." Henry stated frustrated.

"I don't think you're children will be going, at least not all of them." Paige smiled at her husband as she looked up from a potion she was mixing. Pandora stood at one side of her mother chopping up ingredients and Patricia sat at the table measuring out various powders.

"We're spending our sweet sixteen at Magic School, like every birthday we've had for the last four years." Dora spat resentfully.

"Pandora you better be chopping that root into exactly 1/8 of an inch." Paige snapped harshly. The loud thumping of Piper and Melinda shoes was soon followed by the demanding voice of the oldest Charmed one.

"Please repeat the plan to me once more Melinda," Piper said sternly. Henry was pulling out the boxes of Chinese food and walked over and handed a box to his quieter daughter.

"Mom, I've repeated it twice." Melinda complained.

"I want to make sure you understand, this is important Melinda. There is no room for error, you understand me?" Piper pointed her maternal finger at her youngest. The mother of three was smiling courageously but in reality, it had been almost twenty years since Piper had been this frightened for her children. She was trying to ignore the need to grab her daughter and her two sons and lock them up at magic school with their grandfather. She reasoned that she wouldn't be able to stop Wyatt and Chris from fighting a battle she knew they were always going to have to fight. But Piper Halliwell would not be allowing her youngest to get involved, not if she had anything to say about it, not yet anyway.

"I understand that it's important!" Melinda snapped.

"Melinda, tone." Leo sighed as he handed his daughter a cup of soda.

"You know, you can go back upstairs and help your aunt Phoebe finish up the potion and then when you come back downstairs you might be ready to recite the plan again." Piper crossed her arms.

"But mom, that is so unfair!" Melinda whined.

"Life is unfair, consider it a lesson." Piper shrugged. Melinda glared at her mother and opened her mouth to argue yet again but Tricia had stood up and shoved a box of food at Melinda.

"Temper, don't ruin the enchantments." Tricia grumbled through her teeth. Tricia pushed Melinda back up the stairs, following closely behind her. The girls reached the second level before Melinda turned to stare at her cousin.

"Do you know why we're doing all this?" She demanded.

"It's for some really powerful protection amulets." Tricia explained.

"Yes, but why! Why are we doing it? Why are we expected to just be good little girls and do what we're told and no one explains why we're doing anything?" Melinda whispered harshly, trying to not yell.

"Can't think of at least three reasons why we need protection amulets on your own?" Tricia smirked. Melinda clenched her fists and swayed slightly and a silence fell over the manor.

"Melinda, your magic…" Tricia warned before Melinda stumbled back into the wall and slide onto the floor.

_"Your memory of this is so much more raw emotion than Chris. You don't even color the bridge the right red, you ignore the details on your father's old uniform…" Potter taunted as Wyatt appeared in his jeep in a knight's outfit. Wyatt ignored his mental companion easily enough, as he allowed the raw emotion to take over. For the scene of last Halloween to play out once again in his dream, he let the fear take control of his thoughts and lay out the nightmare once more. It had been the first Halloween that any of the Charmed children had spent not under the watchful gaze of the charmed ones themselves. Wyatt and Chris had argued endlessly about their adulthood, their independence, and their ability to protect themselves. Wyatt heard his own indignation sounding around him, as the Jeep drove through fog. He heard his own argument with his mother, his mother who had gone trick-or-treating with him every year until he was 12. His mother who had discreetly kept her teenage sons at home by hosting Halloween parties until he was 17. His mother who grounded him the Halloween he was 18 to keep him from going to the party he had planned on going to. It was easier to convince Piper of anything when Chris was helping in the argument, so this year the boys had achieve their goal. Achieve their desire to party on their own for Halloween, at the haunted Victorian home near the high school. _

_ "Also you have so much more back story, regret really masquerading as back story to your dreams. As if you don't remember how you got on that bridge that night." Potter mocked. But the dream shook now, shook not because of what had happened on that bridge long ago but because something was shaking in Wyatt. _

_ Flashed of a bar, a western bar… no a futuristic bar with tacky neon lights. A demon so old the dust had settled into part of his decorum. More demons. Darkness. A flash of Chris… _

Wyatt's eyes popped open and he gasped for air as if he had been underwater. A hand pushed into Wyatt's chest.

"Calm down Wyatt," HJ soothed. Wyatt glared around the room alert to his surroundings. He saw Patience sitting in the armchair, with her knees to her chin and a blanket around her shoulders. The flickering image of Cole was standing directly behind her and starring oddly at Wyatt. But Wyatt ignored the old demon's presence and instead kept searching the room for his brother and his girlfriend.

"Chris went to the Apple." HJ explained when he noticed the frantic searching. Wyatt squinted, took a deep breath and immediately dissolved into lights.

Melinda clutched at the wall behind her trying to get back onto her feet as she hissed through her teeth.

"Did you see it?" Melinda asked desperately.

"No." Tricia shook her head confused as she helped Melinda up.

"Javin! Javin! Come on!" Melinda hissed now. A black puff of smoke appeared next to her and the tall, tanned Javin rubbed sleep out of his eyes and he throw an arm around Melinda nonchalantly.

"I was napping but you felt…" Javin frowned.

"Do you know how to get to the Apple?" Melinda clutched to the youth demon's shirt.

"How do you think Chris ever found out in the first place…" Javin sighed and the demon and young witch disappeared before Patricia could ask what was happening.

Wyatt stormed into the Apple, flying blindly past the cheesy neon lights on the outside and inhaling the dirt and grim of the underworld bar. He ignored the glaring, the hissing, and the cowering from every direction. Reaching the bar in seconds with his long strides, Wyatt only stopped when Benji snorted.

"Finally figure it out there Halliwell?" Benji pointed up. Wyatt looked puzzled but followed the pointing finger of the bar. He had a growing sensation of danger, of something terrible. If the snitch demon was sitting at the bar, looking giddy from catnip already, where was his brother? Where was his girlfriend? What terrible things had transpired?

In the secluded room above the bar, one of many dark secret corners of the ancient bar where shady deals were hourly conducted stood Bianca and Chris. Bianca was against the wall, her right foot holding up the rest of her body as Chris had one arm on her waist and another holding him up above her head and against the wall. Chris was whispering something in to her ear and Bianca smiled widely as Chris started kissing her.

Wyatt arrived quietly, anticipating danger but never being prepared for the shock of seeing Chris pressed up against Bianca. It took less than a second for the lustful behavior to register with Wyatt; it took less than a second for the most powerful witch of his generation to allow his rage to consume him. It took one moment in time, one mistimed moment to allow Wyatt to forget Chris was his little brother, a young man he had never truly hurt in his entire life, until now.

The power erupted, like the top of a volcano and shook the entire demonic bar enough to create a mist of dust. Power roared from Wyatt, electricity shooting from all the nearest lights and any objects that weren't held down flying around and hurtling into unknown targets. Chris was pulled from Bianca and slammed into the floor so hard that the shocked young man crashed right through the wooden floor into the main level of the bar.

"WYATT!" Bianca screamed frantically but Wyatt ignored her. He left the woman untouched, unnoticed enough that his powers held her to the wall. His powers didn't let her interfere with his rage. He followed Chris through the floor, jumping without thought of consequence and landing on his feet. The adrenaline coursing through Wyatt was pulsing through Chris now and he jumped to his feet as if he hadn't fallen one story at all. He shoved the wood splinters from his body and pushed out his arms sending flying shots of lightning towards his older brother. Wyatt was just as quick and the white and blue shocks of energy slammed into a white and blue shield powerfully enough that every glass within the bar shattered. Fireballs started flying at the brothers from every direction but neither boy noticed the attacks. They were too focused on being angry at each other. Chris furiously charged his older brother but Wyatt flung him back easily enough with his magic into a table of card playing demons that had been ignoring them.

Melinda appeared with Javin at the entrance of an epic battle scene. Melinda paled as she saw Chris flick a chair up in front of his chair as Wyatt sent a knife hurtling towards him.

"Wyatt!" Melinda cried out. But her oldest brother didn't seem to hear her. Chris spun his finger around and sent the knife back at his brother and Melinda shrieked.

"CHRIS!" But again her brother ignored her effortlessly. Javin placed a firm grip on her shoulder when she attempted to move.

"Don't be scared." Javin whispered at her before he pushed her into a crowd of angry demons. Demons with dark eyes, several tattoos, and scary looking scars could not only smell Melinda's fear but also smell her goodness.

"A good little witch," One of them taunted.

"Let's watch her bleed." One of them held out an index finger and a nail grew long. The demon with a distorted face and long nail started pressuring a tender spot of skin on Melinda's neck. A demon was holding her now, a demon with greasy arms was crushing her as the nail that felt like a knife was making her heart beat give her a headache.

"Let's snap her neck instead, collect the pieces of her as prizes." The demon holding her laughed. Melinda closed her eyes, visions of how she was going to die flashing onto the back of her eyelids. Fear was settling in her, a real visceral fear that the youngest of Piper's children had never felt. Melinda Prudence Halliwell had never thought she was in danger in all her sixteen years. Not real danger. Not something that she in all her powers, with her brothers, with her mother, and with her birthright cockiness couldn't get out of. But at that moment in the mist of a pool of bloodthirsty demons, while her brothers were still hurtling objects and powers at each other in a blind rage, she knew she was going to die. She felt something cold pierce her skin, she felt the warm trickle of blood and she felt her heart rate slow. Melinda had never thought about death but as the thought entered her head she felt everything suddenly seem easier.

"MELINDA!" Wyatt and Chris roared together and the demons that held their youngest sister were obliterated instantly. Melinda crumpled into Javin's arms, as he appeared to catch the dying girl. The power exhibition by the Halliwell brothers was reduced to a powerful protection bubble around just Melinda. Javin held out the paling girl to Wyatt. Wyatt's arms were shaking but he took her and clutched her to his chest as light emitted from him and the wounds on Melinda started healing. Javin was hissing at Chris, whispering harsh words that snapped Chris attention to the reality of what had just happened. The demons were gathering themselves but they wouldn't remain unmoving for too much longer. Chris clapped his hands together and his siblings; Bianca and Javin disappeared and arrived back at Bianca's apartment.

Melinda was completely healed in Wyatt's arms but had passed out. Wyatt settled her onto the couch and gently pushed her long black hair away from her face.

_Chris has the hots for Bianca then? _Potter's voice rang in Wyatt's head and the anger that had drained for him when he saw his baby sister dying started building again. He turned and now he charged his younger brother, knocking his head into the frame of the witch-burning woodcut.

_Now you've done it. _Potter mused to Chris.

_Wyatt, please. _Chris begged all his energy having been drained back in the demon bar. Wyatt's elbow was digging right into Chris' collarbone.

"Wyatt, Wyatt, honey." Bianca's slender fingers were curling around Wyatt's shoulders as she tried to pull the strong young man off his younger brother.

"How could you…" Wyatt growled as he tried to shrug Bianca off. Bianca was not easily deterred from her task though; she started wrapping her arms around Wyatt's broad shoulders. She pulled her body up and wrapped her legs around the boy's torso. She pressed her lips up against his ear.

"I love you. It was a silly little kiss, a moment of silliness from your heartbroken little brother…" Bianca whispered holding onto Wyatt for her life.

Patience and HJ watched holding their breath from the table. Patience was muttering under her breath, muttering a spell, or muttering the words that Bianca was saying it was impossible to know as no one in the room was paying the slightest bit of attention to her. The air was tense until Wyatt punched the wall and finally let Chris fall. But the younger brother wasn't showing any weakness as he stood steady and glared at Wyatt.

"Get out." Wyatt said in a low voice.

"Wyatt," Chris stuttered.

"Get out!" Wyatt shouted spinning around with Bianca still on his back.

"Javin," Chris nodded at his demon best friend. Javin winked and picked Melinda up off the couch and disappeared. Chris stared at Wyatt once more but Bianca was whispering in his ear again and was smiling while she kissed his neck. At the kiss, Chris snapped his fingers carrying away Patience and HJ from the apartment.

Chris appeared in the middle of Phoebe and Coop's loft and Patience immediately started hitting him with one of her mother's throw pillows.

"I told you! I told you! You stupid, stubborn, selfish…" Patience raged against him. Chris sat and let the younger girl hit him with the pillow as he stared at his hands.

"What does this mean Chris?" HJ's voice cracked. Patience kept swinging the pillow causing Chris brown hair to flying in every direction and stick up. Penelope glided through the wall behind them and then through the couch and planted herself on the ground at Chris shoes. She started crying uncontrollably into his lap and Patience dropped her pillow and hurriedly started comforting her sister.

"Chris," HJ whispered.

"You kids don't have time for this." Cole's voice was clear, almost cold but it was right.

**October 30, 2023 **

A sharp laughter pierced through the underworld as Nemod jaunted around a small cavern. The rustling of chains was loud and the raw emotion of despair and triumphant seemed to dance in the shadows. Nemod was walking along with Klea. Dervin sat on the ground looking bruised and beaten shackled in chains but strategically positioned protectively in front of a sniffling Amelle.

"Won't you two eat something, I know you must be starved, come now." Nemod snapped his fingers and two TV tables appeared near Dervin with steaming food upon them. Dervin's eyes didn't move from Nemod though as his torso moved slightly as Amelle shuffled behind him and clutched at the food.

"Delightful really, that both of you have red hair. There aren't too many red haired demons you see," Nemod explained amused. Dervin glared at the demon.

"Sir, I expect you wanted to come down here to check the blood was properly being attended to, I don't understand why we have wandered in here." Klea snapped. She stood perfectly straight while Nemod stood pushing into the balls of his feet and with his shoulders hunched forwarded.

"For a mortal creature without powers, he has so much strength to him. He has been down here twice now, wouldn't it have been easier to cut ties with the Halliwells?" Nemod wondered as he stared curiously at Dervin.

"The blood sir," Klea snapped again and started to direct the jovial demon out of the chamber. But this part of the underworld wasn't so clearly divided with stonewalls and natural barriers as Dervin could not follow Nemod and Klea walking into the shadows. Two days of being held captive in poor light had refocused Dervin's eyes and he could see the movements of pulling out the glinting glass of the vials of blood. He could hear the hushed whispering as if Nemod was still speaking directly to him.

"Delightful, your writing is so clear on each of my little labels. Their blood smells so strong, so much power… It's intoxicating." Nemod was giggling.

"Tonight at exactly midnight we shall start the mixing of the elixir." Klea explained.

"Who is creating the elixir?" Nemod question.

"Your little minx." Klea spat annoyed. The two demons disappeared in the darkness. Dervin Rogers had his eyes transfix on the spot where Nemod and Klea had just stood and Amelle was curled up with the empty tray at her feet and her head in his lap.

"I don't know where you guys are…" Dervin started hissing.

"They have gotten tied up." Cole whispered. "Halliwells, you should learn quite often let their emotions get the best of them."

"You are Patience's imaginary friend?" Dervin stared up at the mysterious man in front of him. The mortal was not frightened by the sudden appearance of a man that wasn't solid, a man who was dressed in a retro styled suit and flickered like an old television show.

"I'm much more real than imaginary, I can assure you that young Dervin Rogers." Cole sighed.

"You were once the source of all evil?" Dervin asked.

"Yes." Cole nodded.

"You were once married to Phoebe?" Dervin questioned again. It was the first time that Cole had ever appeared to Dervin, but Patience had been telling her boyfriend about him for years.

"I was once Phoebe's soul mate." Cole retorted softly starring around the damp darkness. The site that was the beginning of the end of him and Phoebe, of a love that instead of elevating them to greatness reduced them to nothingness.

"Can they stop this?" Dervin asked.

"No." Cole started pacing.

"But they will try anyway." Dervin nodded stating the fact not asking the question.

"They might be able to impact the strength of his rising." Cole shrugged.

"Would you help me do something?" Dervin struggled against his chains and Amelle fidgeted slightly in his lap.

"That depends on what it is that you want help doing." Cole sighed back. Footsteps sounded somewhere distant and Cole vanished but Dervin knew that the man was still there.

There was someone asleep in every room of the manor as the grandfather clock struck eight that morning. Tricia stood over her aunt's kitchen sink, dunking a tea bag into a mug of boiling water repeatedly as she stared out into the fog. The quiet twin knew she wasn't the only one awake in the house, that somewhere in the attic her own mother was working on some intricate part of the ritual. But everyone else was asleep. Piper and Leo had gone to bed around five that morning after they finished setting all the sage and apples around the manor as the sun started rising. Phoebe was asleep on the couch in the living room with Primrose curled into her side. Henry was asleep in Wyatt's room. The family that hadn't spent the night under the protective home of the Halliwell clan had been with Coop at the cupid loft.

Even though it was Monday morning, the most normal day of the week any other week, there was a sense of dread that was unfamiliar. Tricia was nervously tapping against the bottom of her mug, letting a nervous flame burn constantly from her finger keeping her tea hot.

A gray coat appeared in the fog outside in front of the garage first, and then the familiar worn jeans and the black sneakers materialized slowly. Tricia frowned; she had never noticed how orbs piece bodies back together oddly. If she focused on the reforming, slowed the process down in her mind she could see how unnatural the magic of white lighters worked. Chris stood in the fog, Patience at his right and HJ at his left starring right at Tricia. Chris lifted his arm stiffly and beckoned Tricia out to them. Tricia rolled her eyes but tugged on the sides of her cardigan and started buttoning as she stepped out the back door. The chill of the fall prickled against any and all exposed skin and Tricia founded herself consuming her mug in a warm glowing fire.

"Isn't fire Dora's thing?" Patience questioned noticing the fire.

"I find myself able to use her power on occasion lately." Tricia shrugged.

"How is everything going?" Chris croaked. Tricia stared at him. Christopher Halliwell had looked better, much better. He had a swollen bruise under his left eye and a cut above his right eye. There was a dark purple color to his bottom lip and Tricia imagined that his entire face must hurt.

"Well. Javin was very determined we do not tell aunt Piper and uncle Leo about Melinda. Is it true, did she almost?" Tricia couldn't finish the thought. She had not seen the vision; she had not had a jerk of the reality that had happened yesterday afternoon. With all her power surges and all her recently gained control, she had not seen how one of her family members had almost died. But it was true. She knew as the color drained out of his face immediately as his green eyes wandered up to the window of Melinda's room.

"I need you to keep everyone here on plan, don't let Javin take Melinda anywhere." Chris commanded.

"Why would Javin take Melinda anywhere?" Tricia frowned.

"You have to promise me, you'll keep her where she's suppose to be? You girls have to help mom and the aunts with the protection charms. You have to stay with them. We can't be worrying about you. It's going to be dangerous…" Chris was instructing.

"Why? And what are these protection charms for?" Tricia found herself strangely curious. Nothing had been explained to them. Piper, Phoebe and Paige didn't bother explaining what the protection charms were for, or why they had to be created. The world was collapsing around them, the source was rising, her brother's charge had disappeared, her cousin's soul mate had disappeared and no one had bother to explained to Patricia what was happening.

"I can't explain. I need you to do what I'm asking you to do Patricia." Chris settled his hands on her shoulders.

"You want us to stay tucked away in magic school while you all go and endanger yourselves?" Tricia questioned.

"Yes. That's exactly what we are telling you to do." HJ sounded distant, as if he was busy listening to something else happening somewhere far away.

"Chris, can't you just explain…" Tricia started.

"No. I can't." He shook his head.

"I'm not a…" Tricia started arguing.

"We don't have time. Do not leave the manor today, it's dangerous." Chris nodded again and with the bounce of his chin, the three young people disappeared once again. Patricia walked back into the manor frowning and found Melinda standing in the kitchen, carefully pouring water into the coffee maker with shaking hands.

"Mel…" Tricia started.

"He came to check on me, without really checking on me? Typical." Melinda snorted. She had the hood of Chris' familiar green sweatshirt pulled over her ponytail and the dark bags under her eyes indicated that the youngest of Piper's children hadn't slept the night before.

"He won't tell me what is going on." Tricia pouted leaning her body forward on the kitchen island.

"Never was good at sharing my big brother. Either of them." Melinda stated darkly.

"Mom and Aunt Piper haven't really told us why we're making these charms either." Tricia nodded.

"They think we're still little kids, we can't handle anything." Melinda crossed her arms defensively even though they were the only two people in the kitchen.

"Wyatt had promised to teach me to drive before I turned 16." She commented sadly tracing the pattern of Piper's marble design. Melinda stared out the kitchen window into the fog before turning her attention back to her cousin.

"I didn't get you a birthday present, didn't get a chance before everything…" Melinda started. She fidgeted with the long sleeves of Chris' sweatshirt.

"It's all right. It was Dora that made you feel guilty enough to even cause you to go out." Tricia shrugged knowing it was the truth.

"I know how to drive." Melinda commented nonchalantly. There was a gleam of mischief in her dark brown eyes. The kind of gleam that often sparkled in her older brothers irises.

"But the plan…" Tricia started shaking her head.

"We are suppose to be here and ready to be hidden away in magic school by noon." Melinda commented. "We don't even know what for, you said it yourself."

"But Chris just said not to leave the manor." Tricia shook her head even more vigorously, knowing that Melinda was not going to let this idea go easily. Part of the calm twin wanted to take up Melinda on her offer, the chance to learn how to drive even partially before her sixteen birthday. Something so normal it was intoxicating to the twin that had been trying so hard to be normal for the last few years.

"Did he tell you why?" Melinda smiled as she bit down on her bottom lip and leaned forward invading Tricia's personal space.

"No," She said slowly.

"Which means that he's just being paranoid. Because I almost died yesterday, but he almost dies all the time and besides I almost died yesterday because of him and Wyatt." Melinda laughed joylessly, masking her fear in sarcasm poorly.

"This is a bad idea." Tricia choked.

"But you want to do it anyway?" Melinda winked at her cousin and scooped up the jeep keys from the dish on the counter. She tugged on the string of the green jacket making the hood scrunch up around her dimpled smile.

"This is a really bad idea." Tricia felt light headed.

"Nothing is going to happen to us." Melinda laughed as she wrapped her arm around Tricia's arm and pulled the mild mannered twin out of the manor and into the fog of the morning.

Chris stood his ground in the middle of Bianca's apartment. His jacket was unbuttoned and his black eye from the day before was swollen while his bottom lip was an ugly purple color.

"I know you're mad Wyatt, I understand. And if you want to hit me again, I suspect I deserve it for one thing or another. But you have to believe me. I never meant to do it." Chris stated firmly.

"It was a magical shove, someone trying to make the two of you start fighting. Someone who knew…" Bianca explained carefully from her seat at her own table. Wyatt was clenching and unclenching his fists only a step away from Chris. The older brother had already punched the younger boy twice, when he had appeared unannounced in the apartment.

"Someone who knew what?" Wyatt was demanding.

"That Bianca and I were once engaged." Chris whispered.

"What did you say?" Wyatt squinted his eyes at his brother. The anger was no longer as vivid as it had been the day before. In reality, Wyatt had calmed down enough to realize his mistakes from the night before. He was aware that his actions had put his brother and sister in danger, that his blind rage had been reckless and possibly uncalled for but he wasn't ready to admit that it might have been his fault.

"You know about the future that a different version of me came back to change." Chris whispered. The brothers hated that reality, a reality that wasn't theirs that seem to haunt their own present.

"Bianca was in that vision of the future, the one that Tolliver showed us." Wyatt stated slowly.

"She was with me, there was a moment… it was just, it won't happen again." Chris explained nervously unable to hold his brother's gaze. Bianca twitched slightly at the tone of Chris' voice as she was unable to stare at Wyatt's judging face she pulled a dagger out of her a hidden holster around her waist. The dagger, the small athema that had once stabbed Chris just three years before, was always on Bianca's person. She started nervously craving into the ledge of the table, concentrating on forming tiny letters.

Patience was leading blindly, slinking around a moss-covered wall of rock with her hand gripping HJ's hand tightly. It was dark and every so often, there was crushing that sounded like cracking bones that made Patience shiver.

"You need to slow down and pay attention to where you are going." Cole chastised.

"I am paying attention, if you gave better directions! Or if this stupid place didn't look the same everywhere!" Patience gritted her teeth in annoyance.

"This is why Chris was hesitate about sending you two down here." Cole sighed.

"Are these human bones you think?" HJ squeaked looking down at a shattered white bone.

"That is actually why Chris didn't want to send us down here, we've never been down here alone before." Patience rolled her eyes but avoided starring down at the bones beneath her ankle boots.

"In this next open space, you're going to have to run. Run across and don't stop, if you stop too long you will get hit with the acid of one of the scabber demons. Once you hit the other side, turn left immediately or you will fall into a rather large chasm." Cole was instructing carefully. Patience scrunched up her nose and took her free hand and dug into one of her pockets.

"This is a delightful place, the underworld. I don't understand why Chris spends so much time down here."

"He has a cause, you know." HJ shrugged nodding trying not to laugh as Patience struggled to slip a headband into her hair while walking forward and not letting go of his hand.

"Please remember we are only here to scout out the place, not do anything." HJ said seriously as Patience dropped his hand and started running. HJ closed his eyes and hoped for the best, knowing he would pass his cousin in seconds, with all his track experience.

The grandfather clock was striking eleven and Piper was yawning her way out of bed. Leo pushed the pillow up and over his face, murmuring murderous hallow threats at his wife.

"Not so young anymore are we?" Piper laughed. Some gargled response was all she got from her husband who refused to lift the pillow from his head.

"Shouldn't you head into magic school before we send the kids over? Make sure your teachers are all prepared for the girls to be there for Halloween?" Piper commented as swung her legs out of the warmth of her bed and onto the cool floor of the bedroom that had once been her oldest sister. She smiled starring at the old picture of Prue, Phoebe and herself that sat in a frame on her vanity table. No matter all the problems that had caused it, she would be seeing her big sister Prue today.

"Piper, you know the boys are going to try to stop the source?" Leo sat up slowly, running his hands over his eyes and straight through his hair.

"Yes, I understand that Leo. They aren't little boys anymore and there are innocents, one of which is the apparently a soul mate of one of our nieces. And I can't do anything about it, because our sons…"

"Are beacons of light for the world because their mother raised them that way." Leo mocked. He watched as the mother of his children slipped into a robe and tied up her hair to be a long ponytail that had gray hairs glimmering.

"I blame it entirely on their father. But you bet your ass, I'm going to give them strict instructions to come back safely." Piper winked at her husband before stepping out into the hallway. Pandora was sitting in the hallway, with one leg stretched out in front of her tapping against the wall and a knee holding up her chin.

"Dora, what are you doing?" Piper frowned down at her niece.

"Mom sent me to my room." Dora spat angrily without looking up.

"And you're in the hallway because?" Piper sighed crossing her arms.

"I told her I didn't have a room here. So she said I could sit in the hallway upstairs until lunch, or until I could be useful." Dora huffed out an aggravated sigh.

"Sarcasm works out well for you kids?" Piper tried not to smile. Dora shrugged her shoulders up to her ears and muttered something under her breath. Piper stepped over her niece and kept walking down to the kitchen.

Henry was glaring at his wife from his fixed position in the doorway. He was looking scruffy with a dark shadow of a beard around his chin and dark circles under his eyes. Paige was sitting on one of the high stools mimicking her husband's angry expression while waving her hands around her.

"It has nothing to do with their magic! They are immature, impulsive teenagers." Paige argued.

"I have to go to work." Henry spat annoyed as he caught sight of Piper. "Morning Piper." He nodded before ducking out of the manor. Piper shuffled towards the coffee maker and stole a glance at Paige.

"Everything all right, Paige?" Piper clicked her tongue, waiting for her youngest sister to share. Phoebe jaunted into the kitchen, chasing after her youngest daughter.

"Piper is amazingly calm." Phoebe laughed holding Primrose tightly around the shoulders.

"Calm, calm about what?" Piper flipped around from the coffee maker, without a cup of caffeine and stared at her sisters. In the silence, the experienced sense of a mother of Halliwells made Piper realize someone was missing. She snarled a bit through her nose and methodically turned back around and poured her cup of coffee, waiting for someone to explain. Still neither Paige nor Phoebe said anything as they watched Piper stroll stiffly to the basket where the keys to all the cars sat.

"Where is she?" Piper finally popped her lips.

"With Patricia, they left early this morning and apparently left both their cell phones here." Paige tapped at the top tiny phones sitting on the counter.

"Because they want me to kill them?" Piper asked.

"At least they aren't using magic?" Phoebe smiled nervously.

"That is what I was trying to explain to Henry, he's convinced that our children are all acting up because they are witches." Paige sighed.

"At least you're seeing your husband enough to fight with him, Coop has been so busy with Patience and Dervin and now Penelope's been sick. He hasn't even noticed a certain someone else is acting up…" Phoebe tilted her head down at Prim still standing in her arms.

"Melinda knew the plan, damn it." Piper grabbed her daughter's phone.

"Language for the little ears Piper," Phoebe hissed through gritted teeth. Paige started laughing.

"Oh this is ridiculous. We're these domesticated people, setting up to raise our dead sister, mother and grandmother, while worrying about stupid hormonal children getting themselves killed."

"Language!" Phoebe chuckled half-heartedly.

"Melinda and Tricia will be back by noon." Primrose wriggled out of her mother's arms.

"How do you know that?" Paige frowned.

"I was awake when they left this morning, they were upset and wanted to go for a drive." Primrose nodded.

"The last drive Miss Melinda is going to be taking for a while…" Piper grumbled.

Empty parking lots were hard to come by in a city like San Francisco, especially not on a Monday morning but Melinda was hardly discouraged. She pulled up against the curb in a quiet little suburban block, after having realized that in the parking lots Chris had taken her to a year before were all filled with employee cars.

"Melinda?" Tricia croaked looking around nervously.

"No one is around, half these houses are up for sale anyway. Just like an empty parking lot. You'll be fine." Melinda smiled as she turned the rearview mirror to smooth out bumps as she stroked her hair up into a ponytail. Tricia scratched off some of her pearl colored nail polish nervously as she waited until Melinda jumped out of the driver's seat and flashed around the car. She opened the passenger door and started pushing Tricia across the shift and center divider.

"You shouldn't be using your magic so blatantly." Tricia snapped as she crawled over to the driver's seat.

"Again, empty neighborhood. We're fine." Melinda shrugged.

"Does this brat thing work out for you? Do your brothers actually respect you anymore?" Tricia slipping her hands onto the steering wheel, exactly at the ten and two, where she had read you were suppose to place your hands.

"You might want to turn the car back on before trying to steer anymore." Melinda snapped. Tricia nodded ignoring the annoyance in Melinda's voice. She turned the key and repositioned her hands but the car didn't start.

"Tricia, you have to kick the car into drive and use your foot to hit the gas. You know this. It isn't like you've never driven anything before… We use to spend all our Saturday afternoons in go-karts." Melinda rolled her eyes and slipped out of her shoes before resting her feet on the dashboard and slinking down in the seat.

"This is a stick shift Melinda, it isn't exactly just kicking it into drive." Tricia stared down at the gearshift tentatively.

"I suppose that's true. All right, let's actually teach you how to do this. Now that left pedal down there is the clutch…" Melinda started explaining.

Tricia listened intently to every word of nonchalant explanation until she started the car and pulled the car forward, slowly for a few feet until she stalled and the car was off again.

"It's harder than it sounds." Melinda smiled. "Just try again, push down on the clutch and a little gas…"

Tricia gripped the steering wheel harder and fumbled around with her feet before tapping the clutch and slamming on the gas. White smoke started rolling up from the tires.

"Too much gas." Melinda stated calmly. Tricia released the gas and the clutch completely leaving the car in the middle of the street again.

"Have you ever taught anyone how to do anything before Melinda?" Tricia glared at her cousin.

"You've known me my entire life, like you don't know the answer to that question." Melinda crinkled up her nose in disgust as she pulled her knees up to her chest. "Come on then, try again. Can't learn anything if you don't try."

"Now you sound like Chris." Tricia laughed softly.

"That's how my big brother thing taught me things my whole life, I think it started as a way to blame me when he did things like use a credit card to open the attic door when it was locked." Melinda shrugged. The conversation helped ease Tricia into being able to start the car and get it into the first gear well enough. It wasn't until she tried to shift into third gear that she ran into trouble again. Sitting her hand on the gearshift, the car was stuck on second when Tricia loss consciousness and her head smacked into the horn of the steering wheel with a loud thud. A thin layer of ice started cracking underneath the car and the jeep started spinning out of control, Melinda shrieked and attempted to gain control to no avail.

_A cloud of smoke that had an intoxicating smell of cologne, crushed lilies, an underlying scent of chocolate and an almost savory taste of red wine engulfed the underground tavern. Candles were lit, chanting, dark hooded figures. Then the rust, bittersweet smell of blood as a thick red started to trickle down the side of a gold altar. A pale arm of a dead person swung off the altar. Everything was still, as if frozen when a young man in dark blue pants and a little gray shirt jumped up near the dark priest and a joyful Nemod. He stared around the cavern until his eyes stared right at Tricia, dark brown with green centers. _

_ "Interesting." He commented before everything vanished. _

Before even turning the corner and traveling down a slope further into the darkness, Patience disappeared in a flash of red light. Dervin had his head resting back on a hard sharp point of the wall behind him making uncomfortable if not impossible for him to fall asleep. Dark smudges dominated his face, covering his light freckles and a shadow of facial hair was creeping onto his chin making him look older. His hands were twitching over the sleeping body of Amelle in his lap. Amelle Hopi had been asleep almost the entire two days they had been held prisoner in the underworld. Dervin assumed it was a defense mechanism the only way the fragile looking yearbook photographer could cope with the harsh reality she had been thrown into. Warmth popped around him, the taste of cherry starburst filled his mouth and his eyes fluttered opened knowing that Patience was only inches from him. He jumped to his feet, ignoring the heavy clang of the metal around his wrists and the loud thud of Amelle falling of his lap. He threw his arms around the girl and Patience burst into tears.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She began to choke back sobs. Dervin had not expected tears, but then again, he never really knew what to expect with Patience. She was anything but predictable. Dervin hushed Patience and stroked her hair softly taking her in, breathing in the linger scent of pine and ocean that her shampoo had left on her dark locks. He heard the other footsteps, clumsy and heavy unlike the demons and too inexperienced to be Wyatt or Chris. The steps snap the mortal boy back into the reality of his situation, back to more importantly the reality of Patience's situation and he pulls back. He runs his hands up her arms and rests his rough palms on her bare shoulders. Only Patience would wear an off the shoulder sweater to the underworld in October he refuses to smile about it.

"What are you doing here? This is dangerous!" He snaps. Dervin has a real command, a real angry but underneath it Cole standing behind HJ recognizes the fear. It's a fear familiar to anyone in love with a Halliwell woman, a fear they might one day run into a fire they might never come back out from. Patience hiccups but she's no longer crying, now her eyes brim with a red fury of anger.

"Saving your ungrateful ass." She snaps. Cole chuckles, crying one moment and snapping the next.

"Amelle." HJ is squinting and jutting out his chin as he concentrates on the chains. Amelle is still deep in slumber though, deep in her own escape.

"I don't think she'll wake. She doesn't wake for much, honestly I think you should probably heal her first." Dervin looked worriedly at the girl on the ground.

"Did they hurt her?" HJ sounds scared and Patience hiccups again.

"They aren't necessarily holding opening doors and giving her their coats, you know?" Dervin shook his head and clutched to Patience's shoulder a little tighter.

"Seriously though what are you doing here? Where are Chris and Wyatt? Those idiots still fighting with each other?" Dervin shook Patience, trying to focus her attention on his words and not on his face.

"Chris is fixing it." Patience states confidently looking around the darkness and Dervin recognizes the calculating look of Chris on her softer features.

"And he sent you down here to see if you could find us with Cole's help?" Dervin questions though he knows the statement to be true. HJ is tucking Amelle into his lap and holding his hands over her, shaking a bit from nerves.

"Yes, and to get you out of here." Patience's eyes burn and Dervin doesn't believe her. He shakes his head knowing they are about to get into a fight.

"I highly doubt Chris suggested you try to get us out of here. He might be dumb on occasion but he isn't stupid."

"I am not leaving you down here." Patience shook her head not even denying she had been lying.

"I don't know if I can even leave Amelle down here. She's not waking." HJ whispers from the ground and Dervin stares at Patience. Patience sucks her cheeks in and again studies her surroundings.

"If you remove Dervin and Amelle, Nemod will know that you were here. And worse off than that, he might outright attack you because he needs two sacrifices for the ceremony that starts in less then 12 hours." Cole finally speaks. The three young people are quiet. Patience and Dervin are perfectly still studying each other intently while HJ focuses all his energy on the light coming from his hands.

"Won't he just grab two other innocents?" Patience finally whispers as she looks down at the ground. Dervin frowns and cups a hand under her chin.

"Any old innocents?" He replies starring right into her dark crimson irises.

"I don't think Amelle can stay down here." HJ pulls the girl up from the ground and swings the shackles off her. She is limp still dreaming of a place far away from the dread of her current predicament. A determination clicks in Patience, as her teeth clench together and she doesn't struggle out of Dervin's hold.

"I'll take her place, I'll just…" Patience doesn't even explain her plan. She snaps her fingers and her appearance changes instantly into an exact replica of Amelle. It's then that she pulls away from Dervin and swoops down to grab the chains and clamps them on to her own wrists.

"Patience…" Dervin and Cole say her name in an octave too high, with an impatience reserved for fitful toddlers.

"It's just until Wyatt and Chris figure out a plan. You know this will motivate them to go faster. Besides, this way I can stay down here and protect Dervin." She shrugs at the three sets of male eyes resting on her face.

"Who is going to protect you?" Dervin sighs. The mortal boyfriend of the volatile cupid that she will not be talked out of this decision, as she has already chained herself to it literally.

"Go before someone comes down here." Patience hisses and HJ doesn't need to be told twice. He disappears in a cloud of orbs with Amelle swaying in his grip. Cole, on the other hand, just stands there and stares.

"This is a big deal Patience," Dervin starts.

"It's always going to be a big deal." She shrugs, looking more tired and worn than she had only moments before.

"But this is the source of all evil!" Dervin shouts suddenly, trying desperately to make the girl understand to get her out of harms way.

"And we're going to have to do something about him anyway." She shrugs again and nuzzles into his shoulder ignoring his annoyance.

The small athema had been stabbed into the table. Wyatt had both his arms around Bianca and she was leaning into him while twisting her ankle around Chris legs underneath the large wooden table.

"Patience and HJ should be back soon, they should be able to find Dervin and Amelle with Cole's directions. I was thinking we go down there and switch places with Dervin and Amelle and we break out right before the ceremony starts. Then Nemod won't have this whole blood of two innocents and he won't be able to rise to power." Chris explained.

"That actually might work…" Wyatt nodded.

"That is never going to work, when have any of your plans worked exactly like they are suppose to? What if something goes wrong, who is going to be able to get your two idiots out of there? You have insured that your mother and her sisters are going to be busy finishing the protection amulets, they might not be able to get to you in time before you get yourselves killed." Bianca snapped.

"A bubble of sunshine you are B," Chris rolled his eyes.

"The other problem brothers Halliwell, is the throne room will be sealed to magic for twelve hours prior to the beginning of the ceremony. Which could be anytime in the next two hours." Javin began talking before he even completely appeared standing behind Bianca with his hands holding his body steady as his legs formed from smoke.

"Why?" Chris frowned.

"Something about a prophesized something or another, prophecy about something… magic not allowed…" Javin shrugged nonchalantly. It didn't matter to the youth demon what the reason for anything was, it just mattered that he knew it was happening.

"Prophecy? What prophecy?" Wyatt demanded.

"I don't know…" Javin enunciated the words and perked up his eyebrows.

"Mom is calling." Chris stated pushing back his hair and starring at his brother. Wyatt nodded and shuddered.

"Someone is using a large amount of power…" Wyatt frowned.

_She sensed danger, fascinating really. I think because you sense it, I saw it… _Potter's voice explained. Wyatt stared at Chris and knew his younger brother had heard Potter as well. But it wasn't the voice that the brothers were suddenly scared by.

_What, who she? _Chris and Wyatt echoed in each other's minds before Melinda's voice shrieked in their heads.

"Melinda," Chris jumped to his feet. Piper's voice called for her sons again.

"You go to mom, check on mom. I will get Melinda." Wyatt nodded and the brothers disappeared.

"That just leaves us, a witch and a demon in love with a few Halliwells." Javin smiled devilishly and sat down.

"Don't be an idiot, what do you know about this prophecy?" Bianca leaned forward and pulled the athema out of the tabletop.

Chris arrived in the hallway outside of his room and practically stepped on Dora. He ran his hand over his eyes already tired of the situation before it even started. Dora frowned up at him before she pushed her elbows into the wall and tumbled into his legs. Chris pulled Dora up to her feet with one arm and looked down expectantly.

"I'm a smart ass. Apparently it runs in the family." Dora shrugged. Piper stepped out of her bedroom, dressed in a deep red sweater and jeans.

"There you are, when I call you it's not just to hear myself talk young man." Piper pointed her maternal finger up at her son's nose. Chris cracked a smile and reached up and pulled his mother's hand down while dropping a kiss on her cheek.

"I'm here now, what is going on mom?" Chris asked pretending not to know that Melinda was not in the house.

"Your little sister is completely your fault, I did not have her stay home from school today just so she could run off and do whatever she pleases." Piper was waving her arms around and walking towards the attic. Chris was at her heels and tilted his head for Dora to follow them.

"Wyatt went looking for her mom, he'll bring her home. Maybe not in one piece, but he will bring her home." Chris reassured his mother by patting her on the shoulder. The three family members started skipping up the steps to the attic.

"The plan is to bring Prue back first, then have your sister stick to her like glue until the actual protection ward can be performed tomorrow night." Piper explains as she starts pushing up her sweater sleeves. As they enter the attic, Paige is sitting on the ledge of the large windows flipping the pages of the Book of Shadows carefully. Phoebe is placing lit candles in a circle on the floor.

"You know how much work this whole thing is, Chris? I think you waited until the last possible moment to tell us anything about it…" Paige muttered as she spotted her nephew.

"To keep you busy and out of my hair?" Chris smartly retorted. He ducked instinctively out of his mother's reach as she reached around to whack him.

"Christopher." She frowned but didn't try to catch him instead walking over to Phoebe and helping with the rest of the candles.

"I have half the mind to think it's your fault Tricia ran off with Melinda…" Paige started ranting.

"Everything that anyone does wrong tends to be…" Chris started to respond before the rest of the statement his aunt had just made dawned on him. "I'm sorry, Tricia is gone too?"

Paige and Piper looked up at his tone, his worried tone creeping into his voice that he usually hid so well.

"Yes, she left with Melinda in the Jeep. They didn't take their phones…" Piper frowned watching her son slightly twitch.

"Is there something we should know?" Paige stood up.

"Wyatt is finding them right now, they should be fine." Chris shook his head.

"But…" Paige prompted.

"Nothing, nothing. I just, I told Tricia…" Chris sighed.

"Told her what?" Pandora spoke for the first time.

"That it was dangerous today." Chris frowned again scratching the back of his head.

"Confusing when someone doesn't listen to reason, isn't it?" Paige mocked a bit. Piper shook her head. For whatever reason, Paige and Chris had always been snippy with each other. A self-fulfilled relationship residual from his time in the past Piper assumed.

"Just unlike her really." Chris shrugged at his aunt trying to look less suspicious and more calm and collected. Phoebe could sense the dread in Chris; feel his vibrating annoyance and panic.

"Check on Prim for me?" She asked carefully. He nodded and orbed out of the attic hearing the default "magic!" from his mother.

Wyatt appeared in the backset of his own car, at least the car he still considered his. Tricia was passed out over the steering wheel and the sturdy jeep that had survived both him and his little brother had been smashed into a light pole. Melinda was shaking and sitting still, very still.

"Melinda," Wyatt whispered as he leaned forwarded. As Wyatt got a full view of the quiet street of suburbia he noticed the men, men dressed in black carrying large electronics and black bags. They were frozen completely still, Wyatt didn't notice until his eyes rested on the man standing closest with a gun pointed and aimed right at his little sister. Wyatt let out a small growl before he lurched forward placing one of his hands on each of the girl's shoulders and orbing them away from the scene. He sent the girls home with a mental directions to Chris about how to deal with them. Wyatt meanwhile orbed back into a bush. He pulled out his phone and called the police and waited for the burglars that his little sister had stumbled upon to unfreeze and start firing.

A burning figure appeared in front of Dervin and Patience, still sitting in shackles as Amelle.

"Verity!" Patience hissed maliciously. Dervin pinched the back of her arm with enough force that it would leave a bruise had she been in her own body. The oracle witch seemed not to have heard her name though or the burning hatred behind the hissing. She smiled down at Dervin and Amelle as she combed one of her slender fingers through her multi-colored hair.

"See your awake princess." She nodded at who she thought was Amelle. Patience merely nodded not trusting her own mouth to stay quiet if she opened it.

"Didn't want you to die of hunger before we needed you, so here." Verity snapped her fingers and a feast of junk food appeared before them. She started dancing away, skipping and spinning further into the darkness. Dervin recognized where she was heading before she reached the place where the little vials of blood still glittered. She picked up just one, the second one from the right and pressed it to her top lip and inhaled. She closed her eyes and inhaled again and her shoulders tensed. Patience started coughing and shaking with every intake of breath at Verity's actions. Dervin protectively placed his arm around her shoulders and tried to rub her back and get her to stop choking. He kept his eyes on the little red vials though and just like magic they disappeared into thin air.

"We won't be back until it is time. No one is going to come down here for you, you should both know. Halliwells are too self-involved with each other to remember anyone else." With that Verity vanished as quickly as she came. Patience shivered and pushed away from Dervin and heaved into the dirt behind them.

"Are you all right?" Dervin struggled to pull Patience back into his arms. Patience was fighting the young man though and she shook with anger or fear, Dervin couldn't tell.

"Verity Vanguard! I told him, I told him she was bad news." Patience spat more vomit from her mouth.

"She does care for him though?" Dervin asked softly, whispered almost unsure he really wanted to get Patience angry.

"Care!" Patience threw up her hands and snapped her head around to stare at Dervin. "She cares enough to make him suffer."

"Maybe." Dervin nodded as he looked back to where the blood had been. He reached out and grabbed a bag of chips and popped it open.

"What do you think she meant?" He questioned popping a chip into his mouth.

"About what?" Patience demanded cleaning off her mouth with the back of her hand. She scooted back towards Dervin and stared down at the food with a disgusted look.

"Won't be back before it is time?" Dervin offered her a chip. But Patience shook her head and closed her eyes willing for something she desired to show up. But nothing happened, nothing magical at all.

Melinda and Patricia fell softly onto the empty couch in front of Chris and Primrose. Tricia was awake now with her eyes wide and scared as she felt a bead of sweat run down her cheek. Melinda fidgeted under her older brother's glare, even though she knew it wasn't directed at her.

"I told you this morning, I told you it was dangerous." Chris snapped making to stand up but Primrose scrambled into his lap and clung to his shoulders. The youngest cupid knew that if Chris got up, he would move the conversation away from her. Primrose was bored of being left out of the adult conversations today.

"We weren't doing anything magical." Tricia groaned miserably.

"Excuse me?" Chris wrapped his arms around Primrose and stood up with the ten year old attached to his hip.

"Wyatt promised to teach Tricia how to drive before she turned 16…" Melinda began the explanation.

"What does that have anything to do with anything?" Chris demanded taking a single stride the couch and using the hand not wrapped around Prim to examine his sister for injuries.

"Chris," Melinda pushed his hand away. "I told her I would teach her."

"Because that's completely legal." Chris muttered smacking Melinda's hand away as he kept checking the back of her neck.

"I was just practicing getting into third gear…." Tricia explained.

"The jeep, you were teaching her in the jeep! Nothing happened to it?" Chris stopped examining Melinda.

"We sort of, I sort of… it's in a light post…" Tricia stated carefully. Chris pried Primrose off of him now and sat her in Melinda's lap as he moved to Patricia. He used both of his hands to pat her down to see if she had a reaction to pain.

"What happened?" He sighed.

"I don't really know." Tricia shook her head miserably.

_She sensed danger. Kid has a sense she doesn't even know about and her magic kicked in to protect them. Just ask Melinda. _Potter suggested in the back of Chris head. Chris scratched his ear and turned to his sister.

"What happened?" He repeated starring right at her.

"You almost got me killed yesterday, don't act all high and mighty with me." She snapped at him. Tricia gaped at her.

"I didn't bring you to that demon bar." Chris gritted his teeth and closed his eyes. "And believe me, I might just vanquish Javin for it."

"Don't." Melinda started crying and Chris threw his hands up into the air. He ignored his crying sister for a moment and turned back to Tricia.

"I asked you." He whispered disappointed. Tricia nodded biting back the sarcastic retort about how Chris shouldn't be surprised at the karma of the whole situation. Primrose was patting Melinda on the shoulder and trying to hum a song to get her to stop crying. Chris bent down and lifted his sister's arm and used the cuffs of his own sweatshirt to wipe away her tears.

"I won't kill Javin." Chris muttered insincerely.

"You won't let Wyatt do it either?" Melinda hiccupped. Chris rolled his eyes.

"I can't keep Wyatt from doing anything, you know that…" He argued. But Melinda started wailing again and he pressed her own hand against her mouth and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. All right. I will make sure Wyatt doesn't either." He sighed. Melinda calmed down again but still had tears streaming down her face.

"Tell me what happened." Chris commanded, it wasn't harsh but it wasn't an invitation either.

"There were some guys stealing stuff from a house at the end of the street where we were practicing." Melinda started explaining and Chris couldn't help but laugh.

"You ran into normal danger?" He glanced up to Tricia.

"I don't even know how I noticed them…. but I did, I guess, because one minute we're fine and the next I froze a thin layer of ice beneath the car and it's spinning out of control and well I pass out from a vision…" Tricia explains abashed.

"A thin layer of ice?" Chris frowned.

_She was reacting to needing to protect them. Her magic works better on instinct it was leading them away from the danger by crashing the car. _Potter explained.

"Chris! Melinda!" Piper's voice carried strongly from the attic down into the living room.

"What is the plan?" Chris asked of Melinda.

"What plan?" Melinda started playing with Primrose's hair.

"You know, aunt Piper's plan." Primrose frowned at her older cousin.

"Yes, you know, mom's plan." Chris clasped his hand under Melinda's right elbow and yanked her up unceremoniously. Prim jumped off just in time to not tumble to the ground.

"You know the plan." Melinda whined.

"I want you to tell me the plan, I want to make sure you know the plan." Chris shrugged.

"I do." Melinda nodded.

"Humor me." Chris clicked his tongue and scooped down and picked Primrose back up. He pointed with his chin for Tricia to lead the way up to the attic.

"Do we all need to go up to the attic?" Tricia questioned.

"We all do," Chris nodded. "Apparently, simply directions and threats of danger aren't enough to keep you two safe from anything."

"Really, you're one to talk." Melinda grumbled fighting her brother's firm holds on her elbow. But Chris just held on tighter with every tug from her.

"Primrose was just telling me here part of the plan." Chris was nodding at Primrose. "She can follow directions."

"She is just excited that she gets to help with anything." Melinda rolled her eyes.

"You should be just as excited." Chris stated scathingly at the mocking tone in Melinda's voice. Chris was as sarcastic as each of his family members but he didn't like it when mocking turned mean.

"We didn't mean anything by the drive this morning, Melinda was just trying to give me a birthday present." Tricia tried defending her cousin. She knew that Wyatt and Chris were both a little more than fed up with their youngest attitude. One day Melinda wanted to be magical and would try to fall in line with her brothers and the next she didn't want to have anything to do with magic and disregard the dangers her family was constantly on about. It was enough to drive any individual insane, even more likely the quick to temper Halliwell brothers.

"She was also hoping, just a little bit, that her big brothers would find out and want to kill her." Chris sighed. Tricia bit down on her bottom lip, he was right, of course. She knew that. Melinda did have that habit, similar to Dora, the need to seek out outrageous things to do to get the attention from doing them. It's why Melinda and Dora always seemed to get along better than Tricia and Melinda. But the three of them had been through their entire lives together; Melinda was just like a sister to the twins.

"Maybe I also wanted to help my big brother keep his promise for once." Melinda spat.

"Wyatt's never broken a promise to you and you know it." Chris sighed annoyed as he pushed his sister forward at the last step into the attic.

The four charmed sisters turn to look at the young people who had just shuffled in. Piper, Phoebe and Paige looking decades older than their oldest sister, Prue still visibly just a little over thirty smiled widely at her nieces and nephew.

"You're all getting so big." Prue smiled walking out of the center of the candle circle and becoming more than just a ghost.

"Hi aunt Prue," Chris gave her a hug before dropping Primrose to stand on her own two feet.

"Still trouble?" Prue asked him. Below there was a large crash and Chris shrugged sheepishly as if the crash were really somehow his fault.

"Obviously." Piper responded for him, "Demons can't get in here, so you go tell whichever one of your cousins or brother that has stumbled in that they better pick up their own mess."

"Yes ma'am." Chris nodded and jogged down the stairs.

Wyatt stood feeling horribly vulnerable next to the lamp pole that was wearing his jeep. The police had arrived quickly, apparently having been near by, and were shoving the men that had been cleaning out the family up the street into their cruisers. He had been instructed to wait to give his statement and for the tow truck. Wyatt was pacing along the sidewalk; glad the thin layer of ice that Tricia had managed to produce had since melted away.

"Standing out here while there is a rising source of all evil, day before Halloween…" He was muttering under his breath. His hands were twitching slightly ready if anything did happen to attack but Wyatt knew that demons were stupid, but more important Nemod wasn't stupid. The rising source would not send someone to attack Wyatt in plain daylight there was exposure to magic to keep that from happening. A tow truck pulled up to the curb in front of the jeep and a man in a blue jump suit stepped out from the driver's side. Wyatt barely looked up, though he did do a double take when he thought he noticed pinstripes on the mechanics jumpsuit. Thin white pinstripes were on the suspiciously clean jumpsuit of the mechanic and Wyatt snapped his hands out from behind his back and had them up at his shoulders in milliseconds.

"Might want to rethink that decision, those cops are coming over here for your statement in about three minutes." The familiar British drawl of Nemod taunted. Wyatt stared at the familiar face and black curls of the rising source.

"What are you doing here?" Wyatt asked through gritted teeth not dropping his hands but also not attempting to do anything. Because Nemod was right, the police officers were starting to look ready to walk over to him.

"You'd think you would be more busy trying to stop little old me from becoming public enemy number one…" Nemod mocks as he fiddles around with the crane of the tow truck. Wyatt frowns as he watches the demon try to get the hook onto his car. He rolls his eyes and walks over and starts to do it himself, there is no point in letting the demon do more damage to the car for the sake of it.

"You'd think you would be busy failing at becoming the source of all evil." Wyatt huffed as he attached the hook to his car.

"Witty banter is usually your brother's cup of tea." Nemod laughed.

"My brother has never had a cup of tea in his life." Wyatt replied standing back up and wiping down his hands on his jeans. Nemod laughed again and went to press the button that activated actually lifting the crushed jeep off the street.

"I see now it's because he has more wit than you." Nemod nods.

"What do you want?" Wyatt demanded crossing his arms over his chest. Nemod pursued his lips and nodded.

"You could still join me, you know." Nemod stated starring up at Wyatt, who was taller than the ambitious demon. The scowl of Wyatt's face gave the demon all the answer he ever needed.

"I am going to ask you one more time, before I make something explode…" Wyatt warned.

"You have your mother's temper." Nemod sighed.

"And that's what you came to tell me?" Wyatt scoffed.

"No, no. I came to warn you. Let you know that trying to save your two little innocents is futile. I like you and your brother, still think one day you might join me, don't want you wasting useless energy." Nemod shrugged.

"And what makes you think I would pay attention to any of your advice?" Wyatt demanded.

"Well, I was worried you might do something stupid. You or that brother of yours, what with your fighting over that little pathetic assassin." Nemod shrugged. The officers were almost in range to hear the conversation.

"What?" Wyatt coughed.

"Oh we all know. Your temper is something quite legendry Wyatt." Nemod licked his lips and looked over at the cops. "But your innocents are sealed from magic until the ceremony starts and by then it will be too late to save them from dying, too late to get yourselves killed. Just let these ones die this time." Nemod winked and climbed back into the cab of his tow truck. Wyatt blinked a few times just starring after the demon that was the root of all his problems.

Chris jumped over the last remaining steps into the kitchen. HJ was on the floor surrounding by sections of his parent's breakfast table with Amelle in his arms. Javin and Bianca were standing near the door leading to the driveway.

"Where is Patience?" Chris asked immediately noticing he was missing a family member.

"She is waiting for you and Wyatt to come back and get her and Dervin." HJ explained cautiously standing up.

"Waiting?" Chris repeated.

"She turned herself into Amelle to wait." HJ shrugged.

"And you two are here because?" Chris stared at Bianca and Javin.

"Bearer of bad news mate." Javin forced a smile to his face.

"What kind of bad news?" Chris glared.

"Patience is sealed into the underworld already." Bianca whispered.

"What do you mean she's sealed into the underworld already?" Chris lunged towards Javin but Bianca stepped into his path.

"It's not Javin's fault." Bianca argued holding Chris in place with her hands on his chest.

"We didn't figure out it was sealed until we tried to go down there and get her ourselves." Javin nodded not looking guilty but not looking satisfied either. The parade of family from the attic trudged into the kitchen. Bianca released Chris immediately and stepped back, putting as much distance between him and her that she could manage. Javin nervously twitched nearer the door in case he had to bolt.

"The table Henry," Paige clapped her hands and the table reconstructed itself.

"Where's Patience?" Phoebe frowned starring around the kitchen looking for her oldest daughter.

"With Dervin." Primrose responded sadly.

It was an artful type of chaos that ensued on the Halliwell manor for the rest of the afternoon. Wyatt arrived at the manor hours later, after giving his statement and grudgingly accepting a ride from one of the police officers home. He had come into the house convinced Nemod might be right, that trying to save Dervin Rogers and Amelle Hopi might be impossible. That is until he heard that Patience had switched places with one of their innocents. Then it became a question of how to pull off the impossible than how impossible it was. Henry Junior and Amelle were swept off to magic school with Melinda and Prue being banned from any or all missions to getting Patience out of the underworld. Wyatt and Chris, though not outwardly angry, were slightly inclined to blame the whole Patience mess on HJ. No matter how much Piper, Phoebe and Paige wanted to fix the whole situation they were too busy with what Chris reminded them was excruciatingly important.

The grandfather clock in the foray of the manor struck half past 11 P.M. and the house was still for the first time all day. Chris sat on the couch in the living room with the Book of Shadows on his lap and Bianca sitting on the opposite side of a throw pillow from him. Bianca was curled away from Chris reading through her own family's collected magical history. Wyatt had disappeared to collect a few ancient scrolls on prophecies from Magic School and check on the rest of the family. Javin had agreed begrudgingly to stand watch in the underworld in case the seal lifted suddenly.

Chris stopped on a page with a large bronze icon of a phoenix. He glanced over at Bianca but she didn't look up from her own research.

"B," Chris whispered. She looked up now and smiled at him.

"Yeah?" She smiled before noticing what Chris was looking at in the Book.

"Do you still take bounties?" He whispered not looking at her but down at the words.

_They have no allegiances other than to their own vengeance and they will seek out and kill any bounty they're hired to hunt down. _

"Not since you." Bianca shook her head. She closed the book in her lap. There wasn't anything she didn't already know present in its pages anyway. Besides, she could tell this particular conversation might need more attention than her research or rather demand it.

"Was I your only bounty?" Chris asked skirting the real question he wanted to ask. Bianca closed her eyes and leaned back on velvet cushioning of the couch. She was not ashamed of what she was, but somehow the Halliwell brothers made her feel a tinge of regret.

"No. I was 23 when I met you, you were hardly my only bounty." She sighed. Chris watched her push her fake blonde hair behind her ear. He had been seeing her more in his dreams since Avalon, remembering more and more about her every night.

"But I was your last?" Chris insisted and Bianca lifted her head from the couch and stared right into Chris' green eyes.

"Yes." She nodded not elaborating. Chris wanted to ask a question he was going to have to voice it out loud. They were both silent for a few minutes, just starring at each other. They could hear Piper in the kitchen, knocking around possibly so they would remember she was still in the manor.

"Why?" Chris mouthed the word. Bianca shook her head letting the smile creep onto her face, on occasion, well mostly lately Christopher Halliwell seemed younger than she remembered. It might be because he was actually younger than most of her memories of him.

"There is something about you." Bianca whispered the truth though she knew that Chris would press for more. She reached out and ran her nails softly over his arms. Chris shook his head.

"You've done it twice you know, changed my mind about bounties." Bianca stated it steadily. She knew he knew that, he knew the fact just as much as she knew it.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Chris asked again.

"Oh you know, I knew one day you would grow up to be good looking." Bianca laughed. Chris leaned forward and started kissing Bianca, until someone cleared a throat. Chris fell off the couch instantly pulling away from Bianca.

"I know it's hard but you should maybe stop doing that." Penelope's voice shook. Chris pushed off the floor.

"Has something happened to Patience?" Chris asked worriedly.

"I can't sense her when she's magically sealed off." Penelope shook her head. Penelope Halliwell was looking pale, much paler than usual. Oddly though, the young witch was still fashionably decorated in make-up and crimped hair. A sickly sweat had her hair pasted onto her forehead and goose bumps were running up and down her arms.

"Are you still ill?" Chris frowned hurrying around her and snatching a blanket from one of the armchairs. He draped the blanket around the girl's shoulders and steered her to sit down in the armchair.

"I'm fine." She snapped at him. Chris fussed around her anyway but Bianca was watching the younger girl struggle against him.

"Chris, stop it." Bianca finally suggested. Chris did stop but frowned.

"Why are you here, and does your dad know where you are?" He demanded.

"I need to talk to Bianca, I need to talk to her alone." Penelope stated forcefully.

"Why?" Chris looked back and forth between Bianca and Penelope.

"Chris, please." Penelope begged looking like she was about to vomit.

"I don't think so. I think we're going to get you home." Chris went to put his hands on her shoulders but Penelope hissed at him.

"You touch me or orb me anywhere and I'll tell Wyatt you're in love with her."

Chris stopped midway to her shoulders and stared without blinking at his younger cousin. There was anger behind her words, anger and conviction, which Chris had never heard ever in Penelope. There was no doubt that Penelope was serious.

"Penelope, look here…" Chris held out a pointing finger ready for a fight. He fought with family members everyday and though he might not be use to arguments with Penelope, he could adapt.

"No you look, I'm need to talk to Bianca ALONE." Penelope growled through gritted teeth. Chris noticed the way she was grinding her own teeth, anger seething through her but not making her look any healthier.

"Penelope," Chris was not going to give in. Giving in is what got him into all of his problems with each of his family members.

"Christopher!" Piper's voice carried from the kitchen.

"Mommy is calling," Penelope, mocked her older cousin. Chris frowned at her.

"Go on Chris," Bianca pushed Chris with the sole of her shoe. Bianca was studying Penelope curiously as Chris wandered into the kitchen.

Coop was picking up the wooden spoon that Piper had been using to mix frosting in a plastic red bowl. Piper was standing with her arms crossed fuming at her son.

"Mom?" Chris stopped at the door not wanting to get closer to his angry looking mother.

"Christopher Perry Halliwell, you got into a fight with your brother in a demon bar?" Piper glared at her son. Chris swallowed letting out a breath he had been holding in, he glanced at his uncle. Coop shrugged apologetically at his nephew and Chris frowned. How did Coop know anything about that fight?

* * *

Author's Note: There is suppose to be one more chapter, but with how long I think it might end up being too long thus two more chapters... I am debating that currently. But we are coming up to the end here... So let me know what you think! I apologize for the amount of time this took to get up!

ALSO I am currently trying to come up with the title for the third and last story in my planned arc - I am having some trouble so I thought I would ask all you. If you noticed, the two current stories are titled partially after witty proverbs of sort - It Takes a Village to raise a child, and this one which I feel like I'm giving away but is rather obvious walk a mile in Another's shoes. So if you have any suggestions for a possible title for the third, let me know!


	20. Love Me Forever

**Love Me Forever**

_If I Die Young, The Band Perry _

**October 31, 2030 **

The whispering of the students of magic school was almost unbearable. Flittering with excitement and jumping with gossip every stolen glance and louder than usual whispering was about the Halliwells. The fairy bells were jingling softly underneath the whispering, the chattering, and the pounding of shoes against marble. Behind a tapestry of the Island of Atlantis, in a small indent in the wall of the endless hallway lay Penelope Halliwell. She was stretched out flat right on the marble, letting her bare skin absorb the shock of the cool stone. The girl's body was no longer running a fever but she was still radiating heat that created patches of red on her cheeks and produced droplets of sweat. She had her eyes closed and her hands lying on her stomach as she tried hard to ignore the entire population of magic school.

"Did you hear, Penny Halliwell is going to be giving a seminar on spell writing? She wrote more than half of the spells in THE BOOK of Shadows." A high pitch squeal delighted from right above Penelope.

"I heard Wyatt and Chris are not here because they are going to go after the new rising source tonight." A worried whisperer gossiped from further away, probably across the hall.

"Have you seen Patience? The rest of her family is here…" An eager young man's voice shouted from down the hall. The voices were endless and in all volumes, but they were all talking about the same thing and Penelope pressed her eyes closed tighter. She turned her head away from the hall letting one side of her face press against the cold marble sending a shiver through her body. She started concentrating on breathing through her nose, in even breaths as she fought to reduce the nausea that was threatening to consume her. She lifted one of her hands weakly and pressed her knuckles into the bridge of her nose in frustration. Penelope was so distracted she didn't notice the sudden breeze, or the warmth of another body. She didn't immediately realize that the purple coloring inside her lids wasn't just her own body revolting but actually the sign of a familiar heartbeat.

"Why do you keep hiding?" Primrose's voice was not concerned but annoyed.

"Go away Primrose." Penelope stated through her own clattering teeth.

"Did Skylar kiss you and that's why you got sick?" Primrose questioned curiously. Penelope's eyes fluttered opened and glared up at her younger sister.

"If you don't stop reading my diary I'm going to cut off the heads of each of your stuffed animals." She snapped.

"You wouldn't do that." Prim shrugged.

"I might." Penelope argued closing her eyes again as the light became painful.

"I was watching you last night, why did Daddy take you to the manor if you were sick? Why are you here if you are sick?" Prim demanded. The youngest Cupitch leaned down and pressed the back of her hand against her sister's forehead unsure what she was checking for but knowing it was something her mother kept doing when she saw Penelope. Pen pushed her hand away from her forehead without opening her eyes.

"Seriously. I'm going to start with that stupid purple Hippo." She whispered.

"I'm not reading your diary, I'm watching you…" Prim argued trying not to let her big sister know how scared she was for a stuffed animal.

"Stop doing that, go back to class. It's dangerous for you to be wandering around." Penelope sighed pushing her torso up by pushing down on her elbows.

"Why? We're in magic school." Prim shrugged. Penelope opened her eyes and stared at the fourth grader standing in front of her. She smiled at her sister's makeshift costume, her old soccer uniform deeming her a soccer player. Phoebe had not had time to deal with costumes this year.

"You're going to get into trouble?" Pen attempted.

"So are you." Prim stamped her foot stubbornly. Penelope sucked in a huge breathe of air and her shoulders rose to the bottoms of her ears tensely. She pushed her thumb and middle finger into her eyes as she blinked and let a whimper escape through her clamped teeth. Prim frowned and moved forward stretching out her fingers to run through Penelope's long tangled black strands. As her fingers got caught in a loose knot, Prim edged forward softly started combing through her sister's hair. They were silent for longer than any normal ten year old might allow but Penelope could almost taste the pain in the air. A burnt taste with a salty after taste was floating in the air and Prim scrunched up her nose trying to understand her older sister's torment.

"Penelope?" Prim whispered.

"Hm?" Pen mumbled with her eyes still closed.

"Something bad is going to happen?" Prim whispered. Pen didn't open her eyes instead she tugged away from her sister and pressed her body back onto the marble.

"I think maybe we should get use to that feeling." Pen stated miserably. A clanking of metal rings and shuffling of heavy fabric against the floor signaled the arrival of someone else.

"Primrose, class. Now." Kyle Broody pointed down the hall and glared sternly. Primrose pursued her lips ready to argue but as Kyle shook his pointing finger again the girl decided against it. She started skipping down the hall ignoring the annoyance rolling off the magic school professor. Penelope didn't open her eyes or attempt to move as she heard her teacher above her.

"Miss Penelope." Kyle sighed. Pen cracked her right eye open and stared up at him lazily.

"Mr. Broody." She snapped back sarcastically before closing her eye again. Kyle crouched down resting his elbows on his knees and waited. Penelope wriggled under the gaze even though she couldn't see it.

"I'm sorry I didn't make it to class." Penelope finally coughed but still refused to open her eyes.

"You were formally excused by your uncle." Kyle stated knowing the girl on the floor knew the information.

"Well if you don't want anything as my teacher, it must be something you need as my white lighter?" Penelope sighed sliding her body only slightly away from the man. Kyle lost his balance suddenly and thumped loudly onto the marble floor.

"Penelope…" Kyle started softly.

"Power of Prophecy…" Penelope pointed at her own chest and popped her lips. A painful groan escaped the girl's lips as she pushed her body up and rested against a wall before opening her eyes and starring at Kyle.

"So you knew?" Kyle frowned.

"At least since I came back from the past, a delightful little power spark that trip gave me." Pen shrugged bitterly.

"The power boast is what is making you sick, your fever burns when you use too much of it." Kyle explained slowly.

"You think I'm controlling the power surges?" Penelope rolled her eyes. Kyle mimicked her expression perfectly before her answered.

"Of course you are, you are forcing the visions and then you hide." He was glaring at her now. Penelope tilted her head in confusion, in the last two years that Kyle Brody had been her teacher and her white lighter in disguise the man had never once actually seemed angry with her. He had been disappointed, supportive, annoyed, and many other emotions but never once angry. Actually, anger was not an emotion Penelope had ever really had directed at her by anyone. She was the good one among her cousins, the calm, well-behaved middle child of Phoebe. She had never aggravated her parents, or fought with her sisters enough to make even her emotional siblings mad. But the feeling bouncing from Kyle Brody was anger, pure un-reigned in anger at her.

"Why are you so mad at me?" Pen whispered.

"You were raised as a witch…" Kyle started.

"I was raised magical." Pen corrected feeling defensive about whatever it was Mr. Brody was about to tell her.

"…Either way, you know you are hiding. Hiding is not something Halliwells do." Kyle frowned. Penelope started shaking, shaking from fear and exhaustion and anger. Who was Mr. Brody, her young history teacher at magic school to tell her what Halliwells did.

"You couldn't even tell me you were my white lighter." Pen spat back bitterly.

"Something else Halliwell's don't do, trust anything connected to the elders." Kyle shrugged daring her to challenge the statement.

"And something else…" Pen frowned as she slipped on her own hands and let her body crumple like a rag doll.

"Stop that," Kyle quickly pushed his hands underneath Penelope's armpits and pulled her up. He struggled but got the girl to her feet and shook her impatiently.

"You and… with Aunt Paige… and then you did, but no didn't… Uncle Leo…" Penelope choked on her own words, her eyelids fluttering quickly over her purple coloring irises. At some point though the string of words turned into a high pitched aggravated scream from Penelope and Kyle fought with her to stop. The screaming masked the sound of clicking heels and shuffling rubber soles. Before Kyle or Penelope understood what was happening the teenager was screaming silently and frozen mid-childish fit.

"That is quite enough from you young lady, compose yourself immediately. My namesake should not be acting like a cranky toddler, whether or not you are sick." Penny Halliwell pointed a finger right at Pen's nose.

"How did you do that?" Kyle frowned at the older lady.

"I raised four girls including the charmed ones themselves. I have a few tricks up my sleeves young man." Penny shrugged. Pandora stifled a giggle from behind her great grandmother and Penny turned around and glared at the girl. Pandora swallowed the giggle and stood up a little straighter under the scrutiny of her family's matriarch. She twitched uncontrollably and tugged at the tip of her hair and dropped her eyes to stare at her shoes. Penny nodded and turned her attention to the young Penelope, crossing her arms.

"Aren't you her white lighter? Why is this child still sick?" Penny demanded of Kyle. Pen noticed how tense Kyle suddenly got and he was instantly struck with the childish need to fidget under the legendary Penny's stare. Penelope found herself recognizing the truth in the memories of just how scary Penny Halliwell had been in her day.

"She's not really sick, Mrs. Halliwell…" Kyle stuttered.

"It's Miss Halliwell," Penny sighed rolling her eyes and staring back at Pen. "Are you faking it child?"

"I'm not a child…" Pen found herself responding before thinking, flinching at how much she sounded like a child with the very proclamation against it. Penny swooped forward, clanking the beads on the vest she wore over a colorful dress that looked like something Pen would wear on a regular day before she started raiding Patience's closet a week ago. The force of Penny's presence was enough to make Penelope stand still while her great grandmother pressed the back of her hand against her forehead.

"What does this eye color mean, this lilac color? Pandora?" Penny demanded.

"I don't know, Grams," Dora shook her head.

"You, white lighter?" Penny demanded.

"Their powers are very volatile, but Penelope's eye color seems to indicate how close familiar heart beats are…" Kyle tried to explain. Penny frowned and cupped Penelope's chin in her right hand.

"Lilac is a soft color, a muted purple almost." Penny sighed.

"Patience is currently stuck in the underworld." Dora whispered. Penelope started blinking rapidly, trying to hide the emotions she knew would flash openly on her face. But Penny didn't miss a beat; she stared unblinkingly at her great-granddaughter with a sad crinkle around her eyes.

"When Phoebe was very little, before anytime she might actually remember, she use to make that face. After she saw something unpleasant in her visions." Penny patted Penelope on the cheek and released the girl.

"If something is going to happen, you have to tell Wyatt and Chris." Dora stepped forward finally and wildly looked at Penelope. Penelope stared at the marble floor beneath her shoes, hiding her eyes and unwilling to stare at her cousin. If her family knew how many visions she had been having for days, almost a week… Penny watched the guilt heave off the teenager and she snapped her fingers.

"I have a special lecture, I'm late for. You, white lighter… do your job and guide my great-granddaughter. As for you, Penelope, you do my name proud and act like a Halliwell. Don't just muddle about dwelling, do something about it." Penny winked and started walking away down the hall. Dora spared one more worried glance at Penelope before hurrying after her great grandmother. Kyle stared after Penny with his mouth slightly open.

"Never been told off by a ghost before?" Pen smiled weakly at Kyle.

"You know, she reminds me of Piper." Kyle laughed. As Penny turned into a classroom to the right with Dora right on her heels, Kyle Broody spun around and pressed his hand around Penelope's elbow. He pulled her into the nearest classroom, not wanting to be interrupted and reamed by another Halliwell anytime soon.

"Look, I know I have big shoes to fill all right. The last white lighter that the Halliwells had was Leo and you know, he's like this legend…" Kyle started.

"That you tried to kill?" Penelope choked seeing the image flash before her eyes.

"Stop that, you are wasting energy and besides, I thought he was an Avatar. Which, he was." Kyle defended. "But the point is, those are some big shoes to fill. Before Leo, there was Sam and well it seems that your family doesn't even let go of their old white lighters…"

"Try not to fall in love with one of us." Penelope shrugged nonchalantly. Kyle started coughing uncomfortably and started losing color to his face.

"Right, I wouldn't dream of it." He nodded. Kyle fidgeted with his light gray tie around his neck with his left hand pressed the knuckles of his right hand against the stubble of his cheek.

"I am giving myself fevers?" Penelope finally asked. Kyle looked up at her and nodded.

"You're over using your powers." He nodded. Pen chewed on the inside of her cheek and stared around the empty classroom they had stepped into. She ran her fingers against one of the desks and started walking away from Kyle.

"I'm a pretty powerful witch, right? I mean, I was born from this great power and in the last month I've only gotten more powerful…" Pen started.

"You are currently experiencing a power growth spurt, a hormonal one at that." Kyle added the last part in a mutter.

"And with all this power, with all this power shouldn't I be able to fix everything?" It was begging disguised as a question and Kyle squinted at the girl wandering around the classroom. She was unable to stand still and unable to look at him.

"Your newest power, it's still your premonitions but now you can see potentiality." Kyle tried to explain. Pen stopped wandering around the room and hoisted herself up on the teacher's desk at the front of the room. She kicked one of her boots onto the actual desk, pressing her knee into her chest and wrapping her arms around the leg tightly. Kyle opened his mouth to protest and scold her for the action but clamped it shut again as he watched an emotional struggle cross his charge's face.

"I can see things that could happen along with things that might happen and things that will happen." Pen nodded sadly. She had figured this much out on her own.

"Can you tell the difference?" Kyle asked. He stayed near the door, cautious of the girl sitting in front of him. She was like a tickling time bomb, an emotional teenage girl that happened to be a very powerful witch and cupid was not someone to spook.

"The difference between what might happen and what is suppose to happen? I can see how things could happen, I can see how I can change things to happen." Pen swallow back a tear.

"What did you do?" Kyle jumped forward alert. Pen shook her head and tears escaped the corners of her eyes and ran down around her nose and over her light pink lips.

"I can't see everything you know, there is something dark. Something unexplained, powerful and dark. But what I can see, I can see horrible things. All this power and no control." Penelope bit down on her lower lip hard enough to cause a trickle of blood to appear.

"Penelope, you have this power for a reason." Kyle tried to soothe though alarms were sounding in his head.

"Yes." She nodded unclasping her knee and letting her legs swing over the desk. She finally looked up and her eyes were a pearl, a white so translucent Kyle feared someone had already been lost.

"What did you do?" Kyle repeated, softer this time but firmly. Leo had mentioned several times that the only way to work with Halliwells was by standing your ground.

"I need to go with Wyatt and Chris tonight. I must go with Wyatt and Chris tonight." Penelope stared right at Kyle unwavering determination shining in her face.

"Magic School is sealed off, no one can get in and or out." Kyle shook his head.

"Well, I need to get out. Unless you want two dead charges, you'll help me?" Pen blinked and her eyes returned to a normal brown color that echoed her mother's.

"There is a discussion about letting HJ join your cousins, so that there are three of them in the underworld. As extra protection…" Kyle explained but was shaking his head. Penelope was the youngest out of the cousins fighting to go help Wyatt and Chris. She was inexperience compared to HJ, the likely candidate to join Piper's oldest children. Besides, Phoebe and Coop already had one daughter in danger they would never allow Penelope to step into harms way with her sister.

"I need to go and Mr. Broody, you are my white lighter. So you can't run and tell my parents about any of this." Penelope nodded resolutely and jumped down from the desk.

"Penelope…" Kyle started.

"None of it." Penelope nodded more to herself as she started walking quickly out of the room.

"Penelope, you need to tell me what is going on. What have you seen? What are you going to do?" Kyle demanded. He jogged behind her and grabbed her shoulder, keeping her from exiting the classroom.

"I've seen death, Kyle Broody. And unfortunately, I think I have to choose." She shrugged him off and ran out of the classroom before the older man could regain his composure.

The shouting was getting louder with every passing second. Bianca had her athema sitting stabbed into the wood of in front of her as she leaned forward and pushed her left shoulder into Wyatt's right side. Wyatt had his arms crossed and appeared from a distance to be holding himself together with his own hands. Chris was flipping frantically through the ancient documents in front of him without looking up from the writings. Javin had his feet kicked up on the table and kept opening and closing a pocket watching in one hand and tapping an hourglass on the table with one of his toes.

"It must be timed perfectly." Javin stated again.

"You must take Excalibur." Bianca nudged Wyatt.

"If I'm reading this scroll correctly, if we dress in these black robes…" Chris was muttering.

"I think we should just grab Patience and get out of there." Wyatt was shaking his head.

"We can't leave Dervin." Chris snapped his head up.

"She would never forgive you. Ever." Bianca nodded. Wyatt pushed away from the table and ran his hand through his hair not letting his eyes rest on anyone around the round table.

"If we do this right, we could end this problem tonight." Chris was starring at a painted rendition of the devil in front of him.

"Don't you think we're going to fail?" Wyatt whispered not looking at his younger brother. It wasn't really a question; it was barely even a registered fear. Wyatt and Chris Halliwell knew they were going to fail at stopping the rise of a new source. They didn't need prophecies and destines to tell them that the balance of magic depended on a new source, depended on evil existing in their world. If either brother really thought about it, thought about what it meant for them, they might fearful admit they needed a source. The brothers Halliwell needed a purpose, needed a common enemy with a face. Fighting faceless demons and mystery ploys their whole lives had led them into a meandering existence and being charmed forced a desire for purpose.

"No." Chris stated forcefully looking up at his brother. Wyatt could hear his thoughts ringing in his head though, and he knew that Chris was just accepting that a source would rise. It was inevitable and not a problem worth focusing on for the younger brother.

"If this goes wrong, we could die." Wyatt pointed out.

"We won't." Chris shrugged nonchalantly. His green eyes flickered a moment noticing how Bianca seem to stress under the suggestion of death.

"But you don't know that…" Wyatt stated stubbornly.

"Nemod still thinks you're going to join him, and let's face it the guy loves me." Chris smiled recklessly.

"Just because Nemod hasn't killed you yet, doesn't mean he won't." Bianca frowned.

"He probably won't though, Chris has got a point. That demon has had more chances to kill the both of you than anyone has had since you were both born…" Javin nodded.

"And we have to save Patience and Dervin, so why are we even having this discussion. What we should be talking about is what Penelope told Bianca last night…" Chris snapped his head to glare at Bianca De La Guarda.

"As that is none of your business, I would think we'd be talking about the elaborate plan you have for getting Patience and Dervin out of the underworld. You did plan on sharing the plan? Not going in blindly, because we all know how that works out for you boys." Bianca squinted critically at Chris.

"Wyatt! What if it's important?" Chris demanded. Wyatt smiled and shook his head.

"Penelope would have told us if it was important." Wyatt sighed.

"Probably not." Javin muttered softly enough so only Chris heard him.

"Wyatt, aren't you always saying we can't hide things from each other when we're going down into the underworld?" Chris demanded leaning back in his chair. He balanced on the back two legs of the chair and crossed his arms.

"And everyone does anyway. Besides, Bianca tells me it's not important and I believe her. If you can ever keep a girlfriend for longer than a few months, maybe you'll learn to trust a girl when she tells you its not important." Wyatt winked at his brother. Chris let the chair fall back down onto the floor with a loud thud.

"I have…" Chris started but clamped his mouth shut, as his eyes grew wide with surprise. Swallowing back the words, the memories he was about to vomit out in anger about how he had dated Bianca long enough and was suppose to marry her to know when something she was hiding was important. Bianca tilted her head slightly examining Chris' frightened face, her hand twitched and she softly ran her index finger against the blade of her athema. Javin noticed the tension suddenly and rolled his eyes, jumping out of his seat and kicking Chris in the shin.

"Let's go find these underworld ceremonial robes, they are going to take us some time to gather four of them." Javin smiled dashingly at Bianca and Wyatt.

"Right." Chris muttered.

"Wait, are you two going into the underworld right now?" Wyatt stepped forward.

"Underworld ceremonial robes aren't sold at the local Target man. For being this great big Twice Blessed witch you sure are slow sometimes Wyatt," Javin leaned forward over the round wooden table.

"It's Halloween," Wyatt panicked. "And the source is rising tonight…"

"Dangerous, yeah. We know." Chris rolled his eyes.

"Not just dangerous, stupid. Isn't there anything else…" Wyatt started.

"Look, it won't be the first time we've done something like this. And no, you can't come because I can't cloak your and your brother's stench of good magic. Only one per demon buddy, sorry." Javin pulled Bianca's athema out of the table quickly and without another word flung the small knife at Wyatt. Wyatt reacted impulsively and sent the knife flying back at the youth demon but Javin had used the moment of distraction to disappear.

"I hate it when they do that." Wyatt shouted at the empty places where Javin and Chris had been only seconds before. Bianca laughed flashing over to catch her knife expertly and pushing in the two vacated chairs.

"They will be fine, Javin would never let anything happen to Chris." Bianca smiled settling her knife back into a discreet loop on her belt.

"Javin is a demon of youth, he thinks everyone is immortal and the young stay young forever." Wyatt slammed his head into the wall behind him and stared at the ceiling.

"Death has become a familiar reality to that particular youth demon." Bianca stated knowingly as she started collecting the collection of scrolls on the table.

"Because he hangs out with Chris?" Wyatt nodded understanding what Bianca was trying to say. He pushed his body away from the wall and walked over to his girlfriend, lovingly curling his arms around her torso and snaking his hands over her arms until his hands found hers.

"You should go get Excalibur." Bianca whispered. Wyatt pressed his nose into her hair right behind her ear.

"You would tell me if it was something important that Penelope needed to tell you? She saw you in something, a vision of some sort?" Wyatt whispered into her ear.

"She was confused, it's nothing to worry about. You know with my life being connected to you Halliwells on so many fronts, I apparently am problematic to the prophetic members of your bloodline." Bianca rolled her shoulders and turned her head just enough so as she finished the sentence she could plant her lips on Wyatt's. A distraction tacit that always worked well for the pretty woman as Wyatt surrendered to kissing her.

"Go get Excalibur and on your way back, get a pumpkin and some candy?" Bianca smiled sweetly.

"What for?" Wyatt frowned.

"Biggest Wiccan holiday of the year, we should acknowledge it." Bianca winked at him. Wyatt appeared as if he was going to argue the matter but instead he just nodded and dissolved into a million white lights. Bianca collapsed onto one of her wooden chairs after he left and choked back a sob. She stared around her apartment and blinked back tears as her eyes started to water. She took a shaky breath in and snapped her fingers, conjuring a small but antique looking stationary set. She ran her thumb over the bend of her palm and her ring finger on her right hand and stared absently at the materials in front of her for a few minutes. A tear finally escaped and ran down her cheek and fell from her chin. As the drop splashed lightly on the paper in front of her, she picked up the pen and started writing frantically.

Dervin pushed back his shoulders uncomfortably as Patience yawned into his arm and pulled her ankles into his knees. Patience had tried for over an hour to shed Amelle's appearance but had been unsuccessful proving the magical seal had been placed. Dervin had tried to point out that Cole's sudden disappearance should have also been a key indicator to Patience but she had ignored him.

"It's the first time we've been alone for weeks." Dervin pushed back his weight on one hand and struggled to rest his other hand on Patience's stomach.

"I've missed your smell." Patience whispered as she inhaled deeply pressing her nose into his shoulder blade.

"My smell?" Dervin laughed.

"Vintage car and nutmeg." Patience nodded. "What do I smell like?"

"Ocean, pine and cherry." Dervin instantly replied. In the weeks they had been sealed, Dervin Rogers had bought several bags of starburst candy in search of the particular Patience scent of cherry. Dervin licked his lips at the memory of all the candy he had consumed as Patience started to press her lips to his jaw line slowly.

"It's weird having you in Amelle's body doing that…" Dervin sighed. He was slowly walking his fingers over her stomach as it expanded with each deep breath she took.

"I can't manage to change myself out of this body." Patience whispered into his skin. Dervin nodded and with a gasp he fell backward jerking Patience down with him.

"What's wrong?" Patience scrabbled to unwrap her body from his. But before Patience could react, Dervin was already curling his body back into a sitting position. His hands were pushed into his ears and it appeared as if the boy had just decided to spontaneously do a sit-up.

"Dervin, Der…" Patience scooted even closer than she had been seconds before to her boyfriend. The ivory pale hands of Amelle flew to cup the rougher hands of Dervin and Patience kept saying Dervin's name until he opened his blue eyes to stare at her.

"What is it Rogers?" She tried smiling at him as she pried his hands away from his ears.

"What was that?" Dervin demanded starring at Patience.

"How should I know?" Patience snapped defensively.

"Didn't you see it?" Dervin frowned kicking his feet to stand up.

"See what?"

"The… Well, it must have been… Man, my head hurts. Is this, is this what happens to you?" Dervin's eyes began to water from the pain. Patience scanned their surroundings, searching for an explaining or seeking an enemy but nothing and no one appeared.

"Dervin, what are you talking about?" Patience almost cried. She pulled her body up with a chain that hung off the rock behind her. She was weaker than she cared to admit, she blame the drained strength on the fact that she wasn't in her own body. Dervin was standing rigidly straight and his hands were shaking as he held them in front of his eyes. His brow was set into a distinct frown, lines deeply forming over his eyes in a way that Patience was sure would settle into wrinkles in a few decades.

"Did you just have a vision?" Dervin whispered. He was not looking at Patience, he had all his attention focused on his hands as he slowly curled his fingers into his palms and then stretched them out again.

"No, honey we're sealed off from magic. Remember?" Patience shuffled forward, slowly as if approaching a frightened animal.

"I saw, there wasn't anything in particular. Just a lot of warmth, a pink, and a hand…" Dervin forced his words out, struggled to make sense of his own mind. Patience reached him and slipped her fingers into his outstretched fingers and pressed them back into his palms.

"It's going to be ok." Patience whispered.

"Oh it's going to be just a ball." Verity's voice rang shrilly around the young couple as flames illuminated the darkness of the space. Dervin automatically reacted the appearance of the oracle witch by shoving Patience in Amelle's body behind him.

"Always the gentleman." Verity nodded approvingly as she waved her hands towards them. Two bulky men in dark robes strode forward, causing little rocks to bounce around at their feet from their sheer weight. One demon robe swung his arm around Patience's fragile little waist and picked her up like a rag doll. Dervin started to protest but was instantly pushed with enough force to collapse a wall. Dervin knocked into the rocks behind him and as Patience started to cry out, the robe figures shackled them both into the chains.

"Can't have you two interfering. I do after all have to finish a blood immunity tonic." Verity smiled and winked as she noticed the glare from Patience's one open eye.

"Dervin?" Patience whispered and tried to drag her hand over to the passed out boy. But Dervin had his eyes shut and his head was hanging lifelessly from his shoulders.

"Dervin," Patience croaked again before her own body lost its war against the desire to slip into an unconscious existence.

Deep in another pocket of the underworld, in a darkness that was tangible two shadows were crawling playfully towards a destination. If Chris and Javin had grown up normally, without their magic or their destinies and actually as best friends the current adventure would be remarkably like a Twain novel. As it was, ignoring the darkness and the evil looming above their heads the scene did mockingly remind Chris of a sequence in Tom Sawyer, or maybe it was Huck Finn.

"I'm clearly Huck." Javin balked in the darkness at the silent thought.

"How do you know…" Chris started. "And wait, what if I'm Huck?"

"Right, you're the vagabond? Lawless, vulgar, motherless?" Javin mocked.

"Whatever." Chris snapped back.

"And really Halliwell, thinking about your Junior year English class while on a mission to bring down the source of all evil? Talk about poor timing and you didn't even pay attention when that lesson was being taught in school…" Javin chastised.

"It should just be… Ow, here." Chris knuckles slammed into an invisible barrier. Javin was holding out a hand to help his friend up off the ground before Chris had time to think about it.

"Well buddy, we should probably get in and do this thing." Javin flicked his wrist and a thin larger than normal needle pierced into the barrier.

"Jav?" Chris whispered as he stepped into the darkness with outstretched hands. Chris knew that the black robes of the ceremony were being held in this demonic closet, Benji had let it slip a few weeks back. Chris had been slowly collecting information about this night for months, about how the ceremony would take place and all its details. Javin kept watch letting his black eyes scan the darkness with an eerily intensity.

"Hm?" Javin muttered without ceasing his surveillance. The youth demon was practically inhaling the anxiety and pent up rebellion in Chris, so he knew better than to ignore his friend.

"Do you think we'll fail?" The clank of metal and rock signaled that Chris had pulled robes off hangers.

"Sensing death are you?" Javin huffed uncomfortably. He never use to think of death, before it was something that happened to old people but not anyone like him. That was before Javin decidedly stayed friends with Chris and his family. Now, death was a reality that stabbed a pain on the right side of Javin's chest that made his breathing shallow.

"There's something, something I can't really understand." Chris explained hurriedly. Another metal clank, Javin counted that Chris only needed to collect one more.

"Is it your hazardous curiosity over Bianca?" Javin offered. Another two clanks and Javin turned to check on Chris in confusion of the extra robe. Chris pushed heavy material into Javin.

"It is not hazardous. She's my brother's girlfriend and a good friend, don't you think I am right in being worried." Chris started pulling on two of the robes he had stolen seconds before.

"You're worried because you might be a little in love with your brother's girl. Which reminds me, you should leave the longing looks to those pretty boys in the shows Mel watches." Javin snickered snapping his fingers to magically place the robes on himself.

"Shut up." Chris shoved Javin.

"I shouldn't come tonight." Javin stated softly as he led the way back across the black abyss of the underworld. Chris nodded but didn't respond, the witch was aware his demonic best friend shouldn't be seen helping the charmed children against the source, especially if they failed. The boys trudged along in silence until the ground started to tilt uphill and glimmers of light broke through the shadows.

"You want me to come?" Javin finally asked turning to face his friend. Chris shrugged, a flicker of insecurity crossing his green eyes. Javin frowned.

"I'm not Wyatt, you want something from me you use your words." Javin snapped annoyed. Chris scratched behind his ear, a movement that caught Javin's eye as the young man trying to get rid of something annoying.

"Chris, is there something else you're not telling me?" Javin quickly asked suspicious. Chris shook his head and tried looking innocent.

"It's nothing. Nothing…" Chris trailed off trying to defend himself as the sound of at least a dozen footsteps rang around them. Javin reacted quickly clapping his hands on either side of Chris face and carrying them away.

The blade of Excalibur was pressed against the sweeping black material of Bianca's shirt. Wyatt was grasping its hilt and resting his wrist on the dainty intent of woman's waist while his other free hand was wrapped around her hips. The platinum fake blonde locks of Bianca were tumbling out of a loose bun as she unabashedly made out with the shocked twice-blessed witch. When Wyatt regained his sensibility, he tried to pull the sword off Bianca's back but she held his hand in place, letting the metal press into her flesh enough that the sharpness tore her shirt.

"Bianca," Wyatt managed to get her name out once before she had her lips against his again.

"Leave it." Bianca rushed back and kept kissing him. There was an urgency, a necessity in Bianca's relentless kissing as one hand kept his weapon against her back and the other hand ran her fingers softly against his back. Wyatt frowned and tried to struggle out of her reach, but she just held on tighter.

"Forget it all, just for a moment." Bianca pleaded into his ear. Wyatt felt the need, the desperation and dropped the weapon that carried his entire destiny onto the ground. The metal clattered and bounced but Wyatt merely stepped right over it and with his arms scooped Bianca up. He carried her to the couch and started to peel the torn shirt from her body.

"Remember, I always loved you." Bianca whispered her barely audible claim as she kicked off her shoes and Wyatt worked on pushing his fingers against the brackets of her bra never once stopping to hear her words.

The screeching of wood upon wood was sending goose bumps up and down Penelope's arms but she ignore the discomfort. The young woman kept pushing the heavy desk from one side of the empty study room to the other. She growled as the desk got stuck on some uneven piece of flooring and kicked it angrily.

"What are you doing?" Melinda asked as she slipped into the room with Hector not far behind her. The only door into the study room was only cracked open far enough to fit a person at a time, sideways. Penelope had pushed a filing cabinet to sit in front of the door and was working on getting the desk into the same position.

"Where's Prue?" Penelope huffed leaning all of her weight into the desk willing it to move.

"Mom called her into dad's office, I think they are calling Melinda Warren." Melinda shrugged. Hector was frowning down at the immovable desk and rolled his shoulder into Melinda's arm. Melinda stared at Hector and the two started having a nonverbal conversation with their eyes.

"And Dora and Tricia?" Penelope questioned starring at the desk like it was her greatest foe. She placed her hands back on the edge of the desk and pushing against her feet.

"Penelope, why don't you tell us what's going on here?" Hector tried.

"Why don't you tell me where the twins are?" Penelope licked her teeth and sucked in a breath making a distinctive irritated noise.

"You know you are starting to sound like your sister." Melinda sighed crossing her arms defensively. Penelope flipped around and lunged at Melinda with one of her hands formed into a fist. Melinda reacted quickly enough and sprinted around the room in a flash of movement. She stumbled into Dora as she walked into the room and Tricia tripped over her twin.

"What the he-…" Tricia coughed as the dust swirled around her face.

"Penelope has lost it." Melinda snapped angrily.

"The door, would one of you with stupid active powers move this wretched desk to cover the door?" Penelope waved her hands. Her dark ringlets were sticking to her cheeks and created a haunting visage of dark circles and ominous curls.

"You know, none of us really have that power." Tricia frowned at the urgency in Penelope's voice.

"Hector?" Penelope whined.

"I'm an empath. I don't have the power to move anything…" Hector shook his head as he helped Melinda, Dora and Tricia off the floor.

"What is wrong with you?" Dora frowned.

"Look, I need help doing this. It has to happen quickly, before anyone notices…" Penelope didn't explain as she flew around the room and started drawing a rectangle onto an open space on the wall. She had begged, cajoled and finally demanded that Kyle Broody get her cousins to join her in this study room. The middle Cupitch had also managed to convince her youngest sister to distract the same white lighter once his task was complete.

"What are we doing?" Dora bounced on her toes.

"I need the three of you to open this portal for me so I can get back to the manor." Penelope explained sounding exasperated as she turned around expectantly.

"Pen, that's dangerous." Tricia started.

"Why should you go?" Melinda demanded.

"I'm game." Dora shrugged nonchalantly. Hector stared frantically around the room as Pen once again flew at Melinda. Emotions were running so high, Hector felt light headed and as if his nose might start bleeding any moment. Penelope and Melinda were standing nose to nose and the twins were starring on, anticipating having to jump in.

"Penelope," Hector croaked. It was unlike the middle Cupitch to have any pent up anger, any resentment, any fear.

"What is your problem? You started dressing like Patience, you start acting like Patience? What is it some spell on the clothing of a hooker?" Melinda snapped.

"Melinda!" Tricia shouted. Penelope shook with fury as she pulled back a fist to punch her cousin. Hector finally reacted and stepped in grabbing Penelope's elbow.

"I do not have time for this, please Melinda?" Penelope choked back a sob.

"You cupids, an emotional bunch…" Melinda frowned.

"Why are you being so mean?" Tricia shoved Melinda harshly. "Why, Penelope?"

"I need to go, I need to be there." Penelope kicked her leg back into the desk still sitting behind her.

"She's desperate." Hector whispered.

"Yeah, thanks empath. Wouldn't have gotten that on our own." Dora rolled her eyes. Penelope was glaring at Melinda, all her energy and focus on her oldest cousin in the room.

"Why should you go? You are younger than the rest of us, the least powerful, and clearly the least experience." Melinda argued.

"And she wants to go." Hector rolled his eyes his hands outstretched ready for a fight.

"Melinda, for once, for once this isn't about you. I need to go, not to fight. I won't fight. I need to be there though." Penelope pleaded.

"Why?" Tricia asked again, carefully.

"They are my brothers fighting." Melinda stated stubbornly.

"Your brothers are going to lose. We all know that." Penelope gritted her teeth as she threw out the fact harshly but truthfully. Melinda's jaw clenched and the muscle in her forearm pulsed slightly. "I have to be there, because it's my sister who is going to be in pieces. This is for once not about your siblings; it's not about Wyatt and Chris or your intense need to prove yourself. This is about me needing to be there for my sister, my big sister…" Penelope's lower jaw quivered.

"You should help her." The voice of Prue Halliwell came out of nowhere and every pair of young eyes in the room turned to the cracked door.

"She could get hurt." Tricia shook her head. Tricia was the only person in the room that recognized this powerful Penelope, this individual girl instead of collective sister and cousin. Penelope was on a mission and Patricia knew that no one was going to stop her from achieving her goal. If the past had proven anything, it was the fact that Penelope was just as much a Halliwell as the rest of them.

"I won't." Penelope shook her head her eyes still focused on Melinda. Melinda was looking at the floor, unable to look up at her cousin.

"Mel," Pen held out her hand. "Mel."

Melinda looked up and stared at the open hand in front of her.

"You have a massive role to play in the destiny of your brothers, you have a great role… you just have to be patience." Penelope whispered.

"Have you seen it?" Melinda whispered.

"I've seen so many things." Penelope sighed back.

"You have only minutes before Piper comes looking for all of you." Prue warned.

"How do we do this?" Melinda asked finally. Penelope took Melinda's hands and placed them in one of Dora's and one of Tricia's hands.

"Read this together. It will open the portal for only a second, so I can jump through." Penelope explained as she pulled out a purple post it and handed it to Patricia.

"This could still be dangerous." Tricia argued again, more for the sake of stating the obvious.

"Everything is dangerous." Dora shrugged. Penelope leaned against the wall with the rectangle drawn on it and waited.

"Penelope?" Melinda squeaked. Pen looked over her shoulder at the brown bright eyes of Melinda Halliwell.

"Don't let them die?" She asked carefully. Penelope closed her eyes and nodded, she had seen that outcome but that couldn't be right.

"Prue?" Penelope sighed.

"Yeah, kid?" Prue asked.

"The blood, Melinda might not be the best choice. Think about mom's ex-husband?" Penelope advised as the portal started opening. She never heard the question from her dead aunt as she fell through the brilliant blue light.

Chris and Javin were comfortably sprawled on the couches of the manor's attic one of the only places Chris was ever calm and relaxed. The young men were drinking a single drink a gesture Javin had assured Chris was not only customary but practically law for all youth diving head first into battle. The youth demon knew how to loosen up the tight wound Halliwell enough to get him to admit his insecurities. Javin had seen enough battles to know that insecurities were never anything but liabilities for characters like Chris.

"So Halliwell, what's eating you?" Javin asked after minutes of silence.

"Do you ever hear a voice in your head?" Chris asked as he stared at the ceiling and gulped down a mouth full of beer.

"Like a conscience? Some part of your subconscious telling you that you are being an idiot?" Javin mocked. The youth demon ruffled up his own hair as he inspected his reflection in the large bay window in front of him.

"No, like a voice that isn't your own. A voice maybe of someone from a dream." Chris' voice was strained, the way it got when he was lying poorly and wanted to get caught. Javin snapped his attention to his friend more intently now and waited. But before the young man could divulge what exactly was eating him, Penelope tumbled into the dusty ancient rug in the center of the room. She coughed uncontrollably as Chris and Javin just stared down at her in utter confusion at her appearance.

"Magic school was sealed off?" Javin questioned glancing around the room in search of any other young Halliwells. Penelope choked back a cough and pressed her eyes closed in a tired toddler manner forcing Chris to heart out of the attic only seconds before Wyatt appeared over her.

Bianca was standing in her bedroom frowning down at her bed, wearing just a black-laced bra and an unbuttoned pair of jeans. She stared at the spot where Wyatt had been in annoyance, not even when she was enthralling could Wyatt resist the pull of his family. She slipped her thumbs in-between the heavy fabricate of her jeans and delicate black lace of her underwear, hooking her index fingers into belt loops to pull up the jeans comfortably.

"You putting your clothes back on?" Chris asked smiling, as his face was the first part of his body to rematerialize on the bed that Wyatt had just vacated.

"Your brother just ran off." Bianca rolled her eyes as she buttoned up and pulled the zipper up.

"He usually does." Chris nodded. "That's some fancy bra to wear into a fight."

"Maybe it's the most comfortable one I have," Bianca shrugged defensively. Chris stood up and edged into every bit of personal space Bianca was trying to maintain without actually touching her bare skin. He was taller than her, just like his brother and without her heels on she was even smaller than he ever realized.

"What did Penelope tell you?" He whispered. His jaw was hanging in the air, suspended so close to her ear that she could feel the movements of his speaking on her own cheek.

"I think you know." Bianca let her head rest against his and the two just stood feeling their heart beats through the temples above their eyes.

"B, please?" He begged softly. Bianca moved her hands to rest on the bottom of his rib cage, where she could feel the intake of each breath he shakily took.

"I always meet you first." Bianca smiled as she closed her eyes.

"I know." Chris nodded.

"You boys always make me better. But me, I make you worse." Bianca laughed mirthlessly.

"B?" Chris pleaded again. Bianca shook her head this time though and pressed her lips against his shoulder. Her eye fluttered open to check the clock on her bed stand over his shoulder before she wrapped her arms around him and let herself get carried away the second time in one afternoon.

Wyatt was growling down at Penelope and glaring at Javin, a talented Halliwell that could multitask his anger. Penelope shivered as goose bumps up and down her arms.

"Where did Chris go and WHY are you here, better yet how did you get here?" Wyatt bent down and pulled his cousin to her feet harsher than he usually would but the eldest of the clan was on the bitter edge of his patience and nerves. Wyatt shook Penelope once she was on her feet, repeating the question he thought the most important.

"How did you get here?" Wyatt demanded.

"Sheer dumb blind determination." Penelope spat back. Javin laughed choking back on the laughter with one glare from Wyatt.

"Always the wrong questions with you Wyatt, is it always about what's right in front of your face with you?" Javin question.

"What would you ask?" Wyatt demanded. Penelope started to struggle against Wyatt before Javin could respond, kicking her oldest cousin in one of the knees.

"Damn it!" Wyatt dropped her and stretched out his hand to rub at his knee. Penelope ran out of the attic and Wyatt took less than a minute to console his aching body part before rushing out after her. Javin, meanwhile, just sat on the couch starring at his own reflection in the window and snapping his fingers to conjure a toothpick.

Phoebe pulled out the top tray of her jewelry box, releasing a tense breath. She sat with her deceased mother sorting through her years of collected jewelry on the couches in Leo's office.

"Is that mom's wedding ring?" Patty asked as she pulled out an antique ring from the corner of the box. Phoebe wrinkled her nose.

"You sure know how to curse an object, Grams." Phoebe sighed.

"It helped clear the mind when I was charmed by another sweet talking man with mommy issues." Penny shrugged as she stirred at the steaming potion in the center of the room.

"It's really a miracle you even got married six times." Henry frowned up from the paperwork on Leo's desk.

"I was engaged 6 times and married only 4, Henry Mitchell. And Phoebe dear if you want to use that ring for one of the girls, I can un-curse it." Penny suggested without looking up.

"What is that ring?" Paige shot her hand into her older sister's jewelry box and picked up a simple silver band. Phoebe tried to catch Paige's hand but was too slow to stop her sister.

"Paige, didn't anyone ever teach you to not touch other people's stuff." Phoebe snapped. Phoebe tried to grab the ring from Paige but the youngest Charmed one jumped away and frowned down at the little ring. Coop stood next to the window of the office, with his eyes closed and all his energy focused on his cupid ring but at Phoebe's distress and Paige's question one eye popped open.

"That's the wedding band Cole gave her." Coop explained and closed his eye again.

"You kept that?" Piper asked.

"Paige, give it back and mind your own business!" Phoebe screeched. Prue slipped back into the office with Melinda, Patricia, and Pandora.

"That sounds oddly familiar, like something I might have said to a nosey younger sister." Prue popped her lips and winked at Piper. Piper rolled her eyes and stared at her cell phone once more before picking up the three objects sitting in her husband's hand. Leo wrapped his fingers around his wife's hands and held her hand patiently.

"Girls, what part of staying with your deceased family member was unclear?" Piper demanded.

"Oh, don't be hard on them honey. It must not be fun to hang out with old dead people on all hallows eve." Patty smiled at her granddaughters. Leo Wyatt's office was usually incredibly spacious but on this ancient Wiccan holiday it was packed and the tension was so heavy, it was making the empaths of the family dizzy. Leo, Henry and Piper crowded the desk that had the ancient spells and rituals lay out step-by-step. Penny stood over the ritual table with the potion, occasionally stirring and checking the rest of the set-up. Coop was absorbed in his task near the window, eyes closed trying to sense his oldest daughter and her first soul mate. Paige, Phoebe and Patty were positioned on the couches searching through jewelry, family heirlooms and newer items to pick what object would protect their children from future threats. Prue strode over to her grandmother to help with the active part of the ritual. The three youngest members of the family trudged along to the couches.

"Where is Primrose?" Phoebe asked before she threw a pillow at Paige that was still starring at the single silver band.

"Here!" A tiny voice squeaked as the youngest member of the family flashed right into her father's arms.

"Primrose," Coop snapped sternly settling the girl onto the ground.

"Patience and Penelope are fine," Primrose chirped.

"Penelope, what do you mean Penelope? Why wouldn't Penelope be fine?" Phoebe jumped. Piper's cell phone rang.

"Wyatt?" Piper questioned as she answered.

"What do you mean… don't use that tone with me…." Piper snapped instantly. Leo took the phone from his wife as he could see her hands start to shake.

"Wyatt," Leo started. "Yes…yes. Be careful."

The headmaster of magic school hung up on his oldest son and stared around his office. All eyes were settled on him, even Coop had his eyes open, everyone expecting answers. But Leo settled his eyes on his daughter and the twins, the edges of his mouth twitching downward in disappointment.

"Did you three know something about this?" He asked them carefully. Suddenly Melinda, Patricia and Pandora were interested in their shoes.

"Know something about what?" Paige questioned.

"Apparently Penelope just show up at the Manor," Piper explained as Leo stared down the three teenage girls.

"My Penelope?" Phoebe asked confused.

"Yes, darling that would be the one." Coop nodded closing his eyes again.

"Where is HJ, Henry?" Paige started heading towards the door as her son in question walked into the room.

"Primrose orbed, or flashed, or whatever a cupid does away from me." HJ grumpily pointed out. Paige threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly.

"Mom," HJ tried to push away from his mother.

"Why is Penelope at the manor?" Paige demanded still clutching HJ's shoulder with her empty hand.

"How did Penelope get the manor would be my question." Coop shook his head.

"My grandkids are resourceful." Patty nodded happily.

"Resourceful enough to get themselves killed." Henry mumbled darkly as he motioned for his son to join him.

"Penelope is at the manor?" HJ asked curiously. "I thought you all said, we weren't allowed to go anywhere…"

"You weren't allowed, apparently you all aren't good at following orders." Piper sighed.

"Patience would like the ring that aunt Paige is holding and Penelope would like Grams' ring." Primrose announced.

"And you know this because?" Coop pushed his hands into his face appearing like he was trying to compose himself.

"I just know." Primrose shrugged.

"Why would Patience want that wedding band?" Phoebe questioned frowning.

"If Patience and Penelope get to choose, do the rest of us get to choose what we are going to be wearing?" Melinda questioned.

"I was going to give you my charm bracelet," Piper was setting the charm bracelet on the table alone with a ring and a medallion on a chain.

"What do Wyatt and Chris get?" Melinda asked.

"How does that affect you Melinda?" Leo asked his daughter patiently.

"Why would she want that ring?" Phoebe asked again shutting the jewelry box in front of her.

"Are you going to tell us what these protection charms are even for?" Melinda questioned her father. Leo shook his head and shrugged.

"To protect you." Piper snapped. The family moved in towards the table, Phoebe placed the cursed ring into her grandmother's hand. Penny clutched the ring and mumbled a counter curse spell under her breath.

"Don't we need one more family member?" Henry tapped his finger nervously against the papers in front of him.

"Some of Leo's advance Magical Theory students were interviewing Melinda Warren, Caitlin should be bringing her back soon. We have time to summon Leo's powers." Piper explained.

"Are we even going to be useful or are you just having us stand here so you can baby sit us?" Dora rolled her eyes.

"Excuse me, just because it's your birthday does not mean you can be a brat." Henry glared at his daughter.

"You know daddy, a car would make up for how much our sweet sixteen has not been sweet…" Tricia smiled sweetly at her father. Prue stifled a laugh.

"How about just not being grounded anymore pumpkin? Would that be a good birthday present?" Henry asked pointedly.

"Yes sir," Tricia pouted.

"We got you a cake for the dance," HJ tried to console his sister.

"Are we even going to get to go to the dance?" Dora crossed her arms.

"Not if that attitude keeps up." Henry mumbled.

"Of course you are baby, we just need you kids here while we summoning your uncle Leo's power as extra protection. It's dangerous to have powers that strong roaming around." Paige explained as she started pushing the kids around the table into a circle. The office door pushed open once more and Caitlin lead in the last ghost of the Halliwell spell, Melinda Warren.

The loudness of Wyatt and Penelope shouting and crashing into things was strangely loud with no one else home. Javin picked up an old battered looking doll, which he recognized from his fake memories as the best friend of a four-year-old Melinda. He stroked the yarn hair of the little doll and smiled, happily secure in the knowledge that at least one Halliwell he cared about was safe in the protection of Magic School.

"Javin," Penelope hissed. Javin looked around the room and saw nothing.

"Look down," Penelope whispered. Javin stared down and Penelope's head was sticking out of the solid wood floor. Javin frowned.

"Powerful little thing." He inhaled deeply, letting a creepy satisfied smile appear on his face.

"Look, I'm exactly five minutes away from Wyatt finally catching me. Let Chris know?" Penelope begged.

"Because Chris is with Bianca…" Javin's dark eyebrows pushed into the center of his forehead. "…But you knew that."

Penelope didn't let any of her emotions flash upon her face as she fell back down through the floor. Javin snapped his fingers and traveled to the apartment that had become oddly familiar. The youth demon popped his finger into his mouth and held it up, as if testing the weather.

"Are we decent?" He shouted into the apartment. Someone thumped into the ground and Javin smiled as he walked into the bedroom with his hand over his eyes.

"Javin, what the hell?" Chris fumed from the ground, as he slipped his shirt back over his head.

"Would you prefer Wyatt show up?" Javin asked scathingly.

"Nothing was going on," Bianca defended automatically.

"Adults lie so well, they basically believe themselves." Javin stared at her carefully.

"Jav, where is Wyatt?" Chris jumped up to a standing position. Bianca had remained unembarrassed in her bra as she slowly climbed out of bed and into her closet.

"Manor, you should get there um, separately from Bianca maybe?" Javin tilted his head at the walk-in closet.

"Yeah, all right." Chris nodded dissolving into lights. Bianca walked out of her closet in tight black pants and a top to match, an outfit she had chosen out of bittersweet memories. She started brushing her hair as Javin watched her quietly.

"Penelope sent you?" She finally asked.

"Yeah, she did… is there something, some part of the plan the rest of us don't know assassin?" Javin questioned.

"Almost always." Bianca winked as she walked out of her bedroom. Javin followed slowly behind.

"We should get to the manor." Javin suggested.

"Can you do me a favor?" Bianca asked as she pulled a book out of only bookcase in her living room. Javin shrugged trying to act indifferent even though his curiosity ensured he was interested.

"Depends."

"Right," Bianca smiled handing his a blank envelope. "Give this to Chris?"

"Why can't you give it to him?" Javin frowned.

"Just later, when Wyatt's not around?" Bianca pressed.

"Yeah sure, but you guys really should be careful…" Javin started.

"You're going to lecture me demon?" Bianca laughed. The two traveled away from the apartment and landed in the attic of the manor, where Wyatt had Penelope over one of his shoulders and Chris was violently shaking his head.

"She hasn't even been using her active powers for almost two years!" Chris argued.

"You know she can move through solid matter now?" Javin added as he settled next to Chris.

"And she has been using her powers much more actively in the last week. Almost the mastery of say, you Chris." Bianca smiled sweetly.

"Let's not get carried away." Javin shook his head.

"How are you two helping at all?" Wyatt growled.

"Wyatt, please. We're wasting time, the ceremony is going to start in…" Penelope paused as the grandfather clock somewhere below started chiming.

"Exactly thirty minutes." She finished. Wyatt gritted his teeth and popped his shoulder violently ignoring Penelope's plead.

"Wyatt, even if you leave the kid here. She's determined to follow us." Javin pointed out.

"Because she's spent too much time with Chris," Wyatt sighed.

"How is this my fault?" Chris demanded.

"Boys," Bianca snapped his fingers. "Put her down."

Wyatt glared at Bianca for a second before putting Penelope back down. He did though wrap his arm around her waist, keeping her pressed into his side less than gently.

"Chris grabbed an extra robe, because I told him too." Penelope commented calmly.

"You did not, what?" Chris glared at her.

"I suggested it to you, as a feeling." Pen stared right at Chris, not dropping her gaze or showing any weakness to her older cousin.

"Are you kidding me?" Chris asked his older brother.

"Fine. Fine! We don't have time for this! We'll put a robe on you. But you stay where I put you, or so help me…" Wyatt pulled her tighter into his side. Penelope nodded and Javin clapped excitedly.

"Delicious." He smiled as the robes appeared. The five young people dressed in the ancient, dusty, ominous robes and without further discussion of the plan, or of any plan they headed to the underworld.

Leo clapped his hands together in front of him with a satisfied smile.

"Feel good to have your powers back?" Henry chuckled. Leo nodded.

"I just re-sealed the school. There is no way any of you will be able to leave until I lift it after midnight." Leo stared over at the teenagers near the office door.

"Caitlin or Mr. Broody will let us know if anything is going on." Leo explained further. Prue leaned into Piper.

"Penelope, suggested that maybe we should think about using Cole for these charms." Prue whispered as Leo lectured the children in front of him. Piper turned to stare at her sister in bewilderment.

"Cole Turner?" Piper mouthed the name. Prue nodded.

"No." Piper shook her head and turned her attention back as her own daughter Melinda was closing the door.

"But Piper," Prue started. But Piper shook her head.

"It's too late anyway." She whispered back.

"Not that I don't love having all of these family members around, but we should get this done and send you all back before that gets harder." Paige laughed holding hands with her mother and Coop.

"Yes, next time Chris demands that something like this gets to get done I vote we make him do it." Phoebe nodded.

"If we time this correctly, our connected power will provide the boys with a power boost in the underworld." Piper nudged for the generations of the past to move forward.

The underworld teamed with the life of a high school hallway, demons were milling about in their black robes and there was an anxious energy that felt like happiness. The atmosphere made Wyatt and Chris even more tense then they had been when they arrived, each brother clutched one of Penelope's hands maintaining their young and shorter cousin steady in-between them. Javin and Bianca stepped more naturally around the brothers, not being as tense or out of place.

"Is that a video crew?" Chris muttered under his breath.

"It's like a presidential election, not everyone can be here." Javin nodded waved at one of the cameras but keeping his face under his hood.

"Move to be closer to that side of the altar, you see to the left of the bald man with the scarred hands." Penelope muttered to Wyatt, pulling her hand in the right direction. Wyatt pushed forward in the direction he told her.

_We are going to have a serious discussion with Penelope when this is over. _Wyatt stated angrily to his brother.

_Looking forward to a serious discussion being with someone that isn't me, Wy. _Chris laughed his respond back.

_The both of you are amazingly witty for two stupid men walking into a trap. _Potter mocked both brothers simultaneously.

_A trap suggests that Nemod thinks we're stupid enough to be here in the first place, and he doesn't. _Wyatt insisted in his own mind.

_Well, because usually we're not. _Chris shrugged.

"Would you two stop talking to each other telepathically, you don't know if any of these demons can hear you." Bianca spit out aggravated. Wyatt gave a stiff nod and the conversation stopped. The young people reached the edge of the sea of black cloaks, Wyatt stood closest to the altar, the bald man and the mockingly shining orb of psyche. Chris had to bite down on his lower lip to hold back the sarcastic comment about how all the problems would have been solved if they had followed through with his original plan.

""Damn it, Halliwells! Come on!" Dervin's voice was loud and frustrated. Javin and Bianca both shot out their hands and grasped tightly onto a brother Halliwell's arm at the shout of their name. A whimper escaped Patience, still in Amelle's body and the five young people focused their gaze on where the prisoners were being held. Dervin was pressing his cheek against the rock restraining him as he spoke to the fragile red head that was actually his very powerful but currently helpless girlfriend. Both had their hands chained up above their heads and their legs being weighed down with more chains.

"When he the human sacrifice has to be performed, that's your window." Penelope murmured to Chris this time. Chris felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end, his young cousin seem to know a lot about when and how things were going to happen. He suddenly thought she might be controlling the outcome somehow and was not comforted by the idea. But the neurotic young man didn't have time to think about it before the voice boomed around him.

"We must perform the human sacrifice before the ceremony." The bald man commanded the sea of dark shrouds. Chris reacted, understanding what Penelope had stated only moments before. He let go of her arm and stepped forward, Javin reacted like his shadow moving forward as well. Bianca stabbed Wyatt in the back before the twice blessed dropped his hold on Penelope and shuffled forward as well. Penelope was left standing alone, the girl stepped back blending into the crowd of black around her.

Javin and Bianca broke the chains holding Dervin and Patience up to the wall with their darker magic. Wyatt lifted Dervin over his shoulder and Chris threw Patience over his own shoulder. The brothers carried the two prisoners to the altar table and flopped them down with some force, allowing Dervin and Patience to see their faces under the robes. As Bianca and Javin worked with the chains to secure them to the altar they whispered instructions. In seconds, Dervin and Patience were secured and in the blink of an eye Wyatt, Chris, Javin and Bianca had cut up their own arms and spill blood over the corners of the stone table. Dervin and Patience stopped moving and stopped noticeable breathing just waiting. Somewhere a gong started sounding, as it hit midnight and the dark priest started muttering. The sea of cloaks parted, forming a perfect aisle down the middle as the new source and his queen traveled shrouded in cloaks to the bald man and orb of psyche. Wyatt, Chris, Javin and Bianca moved to hide Dervin and Patience from view standing in a solid black line in front of the altar. They were waiting for the rest moment to reach behind them and orb them all to safety.

By the last gong of the hour, the couple stood directly in front of the man that controlled the ceremony and the giant black Grimoire and orb.

"May the world's evil flow through your soul tonight and grant you eternal dark. Are you prepared to take the power and position of the Source before these leaders of the underworld?" The dark priest held his palms up towards the couple standing before him.

"Yes." Nemod's voice shook the throne room. Wyatt twitched ever so slightly, as his hand grasped the hilt of Excalibur hidden under his robes. One clean shot and their problems would never escalate.

_You'd never get there, Bro. _Chris head shook just an inch.

"Let you drink the blood of your enemies and may you defeat them," The dark priest conjured a cast iron chalice by snapping his fingers and held out the offering to taller of the two hooded figures. Chris now took a step forward but Javin pushed his knee into the back of Chris' legs, warning him to not be stupid. Nemod received the chalice and as he tipped the glass up his hood fell revealing his once handsome face, a scar now running across his right cheek. Leaving a drop, he turned to his companion and held out his offering. Two dainty pale hands received the chalice and in the same movement that had revealed the new source her hood fell to her shoulders and a gasp escaped a surprised young man.

"Verity?" Chris choked instantly. Verity snapped her face to the altar and to the hooded figure that she suddenly knew was Christopher Halliwell.

"Chris," She sighed disappointed. Nemod laughed, the hallow laugh of victory.

"We have guests!" He shouted. Wyatt reacted before the others; he pulled the sword Excalibur from its hiding place and let the cloak reveal his handsome bright face against the darkness of the underworld. Chris shook with fury letting his powers spark open the shackles holding Dervin and Patience.

"I'm guessing our prisoners aren't actually dead then?" Nemod nodded expectantly. The priest growled.

"The ceremony must start over after they have died, they have to die within the hour for the ceremony to take!" He shouted. The sea of black lurched forward to attack the Halliwells.

"Kill whatever two you can get to first!" Nemod shouted. A chaos erupted as magic flew around the cavern and clashing of weapons echoed from every corner. Patience finally managed to turn back into her own body, jumping up ready for a fight.

"Find your sister and get you and Dervin out of here!" Wyatt shouted the instructions to Patience. As he swung his sword through a green scaled demon's neck, cleaning cutting off his head. Patience saw the violence suddenly choked up vomit. Dervin was on his feet now and he threw his arms around Patience, ready to pull her down if danger came near the two of them. The fighting raged around them, the charmed children for once in their life being severely outnumbered by the evil.

Penelope was running for her life, running through the demons standing in her way. Towards the dark priest, towards the Grimoire and towards the orb with her heart pounding so loudly she was surprised no one ever looked down. Chris was shooting out sparks of electric bolts maintaining a perimeter around himself but more importantly around the altar where Dervin still held a sick looking Patience. Wyatt was pushing demons back in entire waves with his hands and any that managed to get past his powers meet the broad end of his sword. Bianca and Javin danced around still in their robes, around the brothers trying to protect the many holes in their defense.

Nemod pushed his way through his demons, feeling the coursing power of the Halliwell bloodline in his body as he had just had the blood of his enemies.

"I've spent all month distracting you children! Easy really, you are all so self involved…" Nemod boomed over the fighting. "It was almost painfully simple to steal each of your blood, the blood that will tonight ensure my success at this pathetic last stand."

"Just shut up, Nemod!" Chris demanded flicking his hands at the almost source of all evil. But Nemod didn't move, he didn't go flying into the sea of black but instead looked smug with a smile growing creepier on his face.

"Ah, you see the blood Christopher makes me immune to your powers. All your powers." Nemod winked at Wyatt who was trying to focus his newest attack at Nemod. The almost source was getting dangerous close to Chris now.

"Blood of your enemies, a powerful thing really…" Nemod giggled. He was now just an arm's length from Chris and his happy face had a shadow of power and foreboding on it.

"It's a shame, I always really liked you. But if you won't let me kill the spunky mortal and the future little keeper of the box…" Nemod looked up suddenly noticing for the first time that Amelle was now Patience. He laughed again.

"You all are very creative. Have you been hiding in that little fragile body this whole time Patience?" Nemod demanded.

"Go to hell." Patience choked between more vomiting.

"Maybe you shouldn't fight evil while you're sick dearest, didn't mommy ever teach you that?" Nemod mocked.

"Shut up." Dervin growled. Chris was now trying to orb out of Nemod's reach but the demon smacked his hand into the back of the man's neck.

"No, Christopher. I always liked you, but I need two blood sacrifices in the next twenty minutes and well you're blood will work just as well as anyone else's." Nemod winked and his hand started to burn the back of Chris' neck. Chris let out a horrible scream as Nemod's hand let off smoke from his neck and the smell of burned human flesh filled the fight.

"In the ancient days, the source would have to pull out his sacrifice's hearts with his own hand. I do like traditions." Nemod smiled maliciously as his hand started pressing into Chris' chest. Chris screamed again and Wyatt abandoned his own fights and flung his sword with deadly accuracy at Nemod's hands. The blade sliced through the demons hands, automatically releasing Chris who collapsed onto his knees. Now it was Nemod who shrieked in pain and anger.

"My Bloody hands, someone kill him!" Nemod shrieked pointing one stub at Wyatt and the other at Chris. The demons around him scrambled to comply.

But Verity Vanguard had been prepared for her new husband's failure, prepared for her ex-boyfriend to outsmart him somehow. The little oracle had picked up one of the ancient, sturdy, bloody candleholders and was running with it pointed at Chris back.

"Chris!" Patience and Dervin shouted at the exact same time. But Chris was in a daze of pain, pain so deep it made the young witch lighter think he was dying. As Verity plowed through the last of the demons and was about to drive the point of the candleholder into a man she once loved, Bianca slammed against Chris and the point went right into her instead. The impact of being pushed and then the feeling of lost that overcame Chris snapped him out of his pain and he looked to where he had just been. Bianca was on the ground with the bloody point of a brass candleholder protruding through her ribs.

"B?" Chris choked.

Penelope had reached the orb. She hesitated for a moment, inhaling deeply and smelling death around her. She heard Wyatt shouting, she heard Chris crying and she could hear her sister struggling to regain control of her own body. There wasn't any time left, there wasn't any options left. Penelope nodded and flashed herself and the orb of psyche to the altar to stand with her sister.

Chris scrambled to Bianca, still on his knees and Wyatt tried to fight his way over to them both.

"Killing her is better than killing you." Verity whispered to Chris before she disappeared back into the demons. But Chris ignored her, his eyes and ears only listening to one person at the moment.

"B? You're going to be ok, you're going to be ok…" Chris started frantically trying to pull the candleholder out of Bianca's chest. She pushed his hands away though and shook her head. She smiled softly at him.

"You're going to be ok, remember that?" She whispered.

"B, come on. I can… I can try to…" Chris held his hands desperately over her wound. Tears were falling freely from the young man's eyes and he shook his hands trying to will them to heal her.

"Chris," Bianca whispered. Chris stared at her with his watering green eyes.

"Haven't we been here before?" She whispered.

"No." Chris shook his head. Bianca smiled again.

"You are more stubborn now then you use to be." She coughed. Wyatt had finally fought his way over to them.

Penelope appeared right behind Patience and Dervin, her cloak forget somewhere in the sea of demons before her.

"You need to freeze the whole place." Penelope whispered to her older sister. Dervin spun Patience around.

"Penelope?" He questioned.

"I can't, didn't you hear Nemod it won't work…" Patience shook her head.

"He doesn't have your blood." Dervin frowned at Penelope wondering how she might know that.

"All your power, all your strength. It will freeze this room… wait for my count." Penelope commanded. Patience nodded surprised by the tone in her younger sister. Dervin frowned noticing the beads of sweat on Penelope's forehead, the paleness of her skin, the similarity of how sick Patience and Penelope both appeared. But the battle raged around them and now the sea of demons was closing in as Wyatt and Chris were caught up with a dying Bianca on the ground.

Penelope drew back her arm and threw the orb of psyche into the crowd. The circular object flew and not one demon paid it any attention as it crashed at Nemod's feet.

"NOW!" Penelope shouted and Patience threw up her hands and her body shook so violently the only reason she remained standing was because Dervin was holding her so tightly. The blood began trickling down her pant leg instantly only a speck at first but soon it was soaking her legs.

"Don't let her look down." Penelope choked on her own words.

"Is she hurt?" Dervin cried alarmed as he felt the blood soak into his own jeans. The room was completely frozen, except for Wyatt and Chris still hunched over Bianca with Wyatt's hands held over her wound.

"She's dead." Penelope sighed softy looking down at the pool of blood. "We have to get out of here. Now."

"Penelope, I don't know…" Patience voice was shaking.

"Just a little bit longer, I know you're losing a lot of blood." Penelope nodded tears streaming down her face. Chris face snapped up from Bianca at the word blood from Penelope and he noticed how Patience's jeans were drenched in dark red.

"We have to leave" Chris nodded settled back into his role. Wyatt nodded pushing his hands over Bianca's eyes and pushing his hands underneath the limp dead body. The twice blessed lifted the woman off the ground and orbed up onto the table.

"Penelope?" Dervin growled still clutching Patience to him as she started to shiver.

"She's losing the baby, the stress of that much power on her body… Just a little bit longer Pat." Penelope whispered. Wyatt and Chris climbed onto the stone table. Bianca's blood spilled onto the altar.

"The baby?" Dervin's heart was pounding so fast, his emotions running so high that it was almost intoxicating to Patience.

"I was going to have a nephew, that's a pity you couldn't stay out of harm's way little sister…" A voice echoed in the stillness of the large cavern.

"Potter?" Wyatt and Chris snapped their heads to see a young man standing next to the frozen Nemod. The young man moving around shocked everyone standing on the altar and Patience kept her shaking hands up. Potter reached out and touched the bloody ends of Nemod's arms and nodded satisfied.

"Nice slice cuz," He smiled up at the young people.

"Who the hell is that?" Patience voice demanded shaking. There were tears running down her cheeks, she understood she had just lost a baby but she also understood the amount of danger everyone she loved was in at this moment to not let her hands down quite yet.

"I'm your big brother little sister, and thanks to some ill timed fighting on brothers Halliwell and a few other prime things happening. I have acquired a solid body, so I exist now. And well, Nemod here is crowding in on my destiny. Huh Dad?" Potter snapped his fingers and Cole materialized in the empty space in front of the altar.

"Cole?" Wyatt hissed angrily.

"Oh, don't worry Wyatt. He didn't know anything about this. Though bit of advice for the future cousins. If you hear a voice of a dead dangerous family member in your head, you should probably share it with someone." Potter shrugged.

"Dad?" Cole asked confused.

"Remember a couple of years back, source of all evil… mom being pregnant and some nasty busy with that meddlesome seer…." Potter shrugged again as he picked up the nearby bloody candle holder that had been pulled out of Bianca.

"Guys we have to go." Penelope pleaded again. She was tugging on Wyatt and Chris, willing them to not get caught up in this moment of failure. Because they had failed, they had failed massively. Not only was there going to be a new source, it was actually going to be a deadlier opponent than they had thought originally and somehow it was their fault.

"Thanks for the sacrifices. Blood of the woman both my cousins loved and blood of another dead baby by way of my sister, slightly poetic." Potter nodded tasting Bianca's blood from the candleholder. He didn't laugh, he didn't even look happy or sad but just the statement made Patience finally drop her hands and as the room sparked back to life Wyatt and Chris finally reacted and the group orbed away.

As the room moved back into life, Javin watched as Potter killed Nemod without much effort. He slipped out of the ritual room without stopping to observe anything else and dissolved into black smoke.

The moon was high above the sleeping city and the last of the drunken teenage trick or treater had retreated inside. A pathetic flickering jack-o-latern that Piper Halliwell had managed to crave the week before sat on the porch of the manor providing the only light to the entire home. The boys had orbed their family the only safe place that they had ever known, the manor.

Bianca's dead body lay sprawled on the same dining room table that Wyatt had been born on twenty years earlier. The tall blond was standing over her pale body, holding up his own body with his palms pressing into the wood of the table. He stood in the darkness just starring at the dead body in front of him. Not far, Chris sat defeated on the bottom step of the staircase starring into the darkness at his brother's shoulders moving with each choking silent sob. Both brothers mourning death and defeat in separate rooms. Somewhere above them, in a bathroom also in darkness Dervin ran the shower as Penelope magically removed her sister's blood drenched clothing.

"A baby?" Patience sobbed again.

"A girl." Penelope nodded quietly.

"She can't be…" Dervin started but Penelope shook her head violently and Dervin didn't finish the question. Instead he moved to remove Patience's shirt in his own mortal way, letting his hands manage to pull up the material and hold her up at the same time.

"That's why I couldn't forget you when daddy…" Patience explained.

"You have to get her to a doctor." Cole's voice rang in the tiny bathroom.

"I'll get Broody." Penelope shook her head. She stepped away from her sister and Dervin for a second. Penelope's usually bright purple eyes were blood shot and puffy as she sucked in a deep breath.

"I'm sorry." Penelope choked out in a squeak. Dervin held Patience in his arms, letting the water of the shower hit his arms and he stared at the younger sister. Patience lolled her head up and studied Penelope carefully.

"You saved Dervin and me?" Patience questioned.

"I couldn't lose you." Penelope choked. Patience nodded and let her shaking hands hold onto Dervin's. The oldest sister didn't say anything but closed her eyes.

"But you…" Dervin started.

"She knew I couldn't lose you either." Patience whispered. Dervin studied Patience and nodded pushing her wet hair back out of her face. Penelope choked back another sob but escaped the pain of her sister and the man she loved. Penelope walked slowly, each step painfully down the hallway. In the darkness, she closed her eyes and concentrated on the pain of the household. She could feel the choking sobs of Wyatt below and the silent aching in Chris. She sensed the emptiness in her older sister and the resentment boiling in Dervin washing out the relief. Then the portal door open and in streamed in the others, the other emotions and the other feelings and the other fears. Enter Piper, first, single-mindedly seeking her sons safe and whole with Phoebe stepping not far behind her seeking her daughters as they stepped into the manor. Penelope clutched the wall when her father stepped through the portal as the realization of love lost hit her like a mallet hammer. It was ridiculous how powerful her father could feel love, could swallow the lost in the air. His feelings drowned the others, her other family members were suddenly muted as she spun in the despair her father was feeling.

As she closed her eyes the lights of the manor burned onto her closed eye lids. Voices murmuring around her, life everywhere and she pressed her palms against the wall hoping it would hold her up.

"You'll be ok." A soft voice whispered. Penelope forced her eyes open and saw Bianca De La Guarda standing in her ghostly glory right in front of her. A tiny infant curled into her arms.

"I'm sorry." Penelope choked.

"It's ok, Pauline and I, we understand. Don't let them all cry too much for us. You did good Penelope Halliwell." Bianca smiled brightly.

"Right." Penelope choked nodding as she stared longing at the baby in Bianca's arms, the baby that would have been her niece. She had seen her, both ways. She had seen the baby die, and she had seen her older and without parents.

"It's not easy walking in another's shoes, but you did good." The ghost vanished and Penelope inhaled deeply letting her shoulders rise and her body moved away from the wall as she lifted her head up and started walking towards the sounds of her family.


	21. Epilogue

**Epilogue: **November 1, 2030

It was raining in the city of San Francisco and the day was as gloomy and dark as the Halliwells felt. The large clan stood in a lush green cemetery, the same place where all those who had lent a helping hand just the day before had been buried on similar afternoons. The family moved away from the grave marker of Bianca De La Guarda slowly trudging along. Wyatt led the group of his cousins, with Chris not far in step behind him. Both Dervin and HJ were pulling Patience along, as her body seemed unable to will itself to move. Patricia and Pandora were swinging Primrose along in-between them and Penelope and Melinda kept glancing over their shoulders to the empty hole in the ground where Bianca's casket now laid.

"You let her get away?" Patience voice asked softly.

"She dumped me, said something about it being complicated and dangerous." HJ smiled despite his mood. Wyatt stopped moving and turned to face his cousins and siblings. Chris shuffled and positioned himself right next to his older brother, two commanding soldiers in front of their army.

"I'm heading back to San Diego. But Dora and Tricia we're sorry about your birthday party and as soon as the Jeep is fixed again, Chris and I we'll teach you how to drive it properly?" Wyatt forced a smile for his twin cousins.

"Are you a better teacher than Melinda?" Dora eyed him suspiciously.

"Anyone is a better teacher than Melinda." Tricia rolled her eyes.

"You let her get away!" Patience shoved HJ weakly.

"She dumped me, said it was complicated and dangerous…" HJ shrugged.

"Loving a Halliwell is not for the faint of heart." Dervin nodded starring back at the grave.

"You're all wearing your amulets?" Chris whispered softly. The group nodded and each tugged at something on their person. Wyatt fiddled with a ring on his finger and Chris scratched his neck where the chain of his medallion hung. Melinda made her bracelet rattle while Penelope stared at her great-grandmother's wedding ring. Primrose excitedly pulled out a long chain with a single triquetra pedant on it to show everyone. The twins touched their chests where the rainwater dripped from their single black stone pedants. Henry tugged at the leather band of the wristwatch he was now wearing. Patience was the last to look up at Chris to confirm as Dervin pulled out the little silver band from his pocket. She took it and stared at it once again, reading the inscription "Love Will Conquer All." She shook her head, daring the ring to be right as she slipped it on.

"Don't take those items off, ever. You hear?" Chris demanded with a soft force that scared any of them out of arguing. With that Wyatt and him nodded and everyone started dispersing to their cars and parents. Chris scanned the area once again and noticed a dark shadow in the distance, Potter waving from under a tree before he disappeared.

"We've got problems." Chris sighed.

"A few dead bodies worth of problems little brother." Wyatt nodded sadly. Wyatt hugged Chris tightly before he orbed away. Chris pulled out a single envelope and read over the note that Bianca had left in Javin's care the night before.

_I left Wyatt the round table in my apartment. I think you boys are going to need it._

Chris shook his head and smiled looking up. "Round table, you're so witty!"

_Author's Note: Happy Halloween/ November All! Hope you enjoyed the story! I plan on writing one more in this series to go with Village and Another. I am participating in NaNoWriMo though so don't expect it until maybe the beginning of next year. I am welcoming suggestions on witty sayings - Like It Takes a Village to Raise a Child and Walking a Mile in Another's Shoes. If anyone has any. Sorry this one ended on such a sad note, I realized somewhere around October 25th that I was setting up the entire story for the "bad" guys to win but sometimes that is what has to happen. Let me know what you think!_


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